Barack’s Bounce

The Hill July 17, 2008 @3:57 p.m. by Walter Alarkon

Voinovich Finds Gore's Energy Speech 'Ridiculous'

You can consider Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) as definitely not enthused by former Vice President Al Gore's speech Thursday on U.S. energy policy.
Voinovich had an initial one-word response ??? "ridiculous" ??? to Gore's speech at Washington's Constitution Hall, in which the Democrat called for the United States to end its dependence on carbon-based fuels and begin using renewable energy to produce electricity within the next 10 years.

Voinovich elaborated that ruling out carbon-based fuels such as coal would be unreasonable because of the country's vast energy and economic needs. Instead, he said the country should take a multi-pronged approach that includes but doesn't rely solely on nuclear, wind and solar power.

"We could put windmills from the Atlantic to the Pacific and, yes, it will increase the amount of carbon-free energy production, but the fact of the matter is, it's not going to get the job done," Voinovich said. "What we need to do is to look at all of the various sources of energy??? We'd be much more realistic to realize that it's going to take all of these things in order for us to meet our energy demands."

Perfect... Gore Takes Fleet of Gas Guzzlers to Global Warming Sermon

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/07/perfect-gore-takes...

21 hours ago in Gateway Pundit · Authority: 1,845

Saint Al spaketh-- The final days are upon us. The Goracle told fellow GW religionists that the US is doomed and that we must eliminate carbon-based energy sources. The end is near. ...We are a planet doomed by carbon abuse.

It's too bad the Goracle's actions don't match his sermons. Americans for Prosperity have today's Gore hypocrisy video of the day, via Michelle Malkin:

Americans for Prosperity reported that Gore brought a fleet of two Lincoln Town Cars and a Chevy Suburban SUV! Even worse, the driver of the Town Car that eventually whisked away Gore's wife and daughter left the engine idling and the AC cranking for 20 minutes before they finally left!

Sacrifice for thee but not for me!
To the Gore's sacrifice is only intended for the little people. You just can't make this stuff up.

Bad News for the Goracle... The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change.

Bob McCarty notes how TIME is sucking up to Gore.

Blagojevich Says Chicago Is 'Out Of Control'

Mayor Unaware Of Plan; Welcomes Partnership

NBC5.com POSTED: 1:11 pm CDT July 16, 2008 UPDATED: 9:07 am CDT July 17, 2008 CHICAGO --

As Gov. Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday signed a new law that will put in place tougher penalties for selling guns to minors, he also announced he's got a new idea to help combat the violence that Chicago is experiencing: he's talking to the Illinois State Police and the National Guard to see if they could help.

The Chicago Sun-Times depicted Blagojevich as the "new sheriff in town" Thursday morning in its coverage of the governor's plan to form an "elite tactical team" to help the city fight crime.
"Violent crime in the city of Chicago is out of control," Blagojevich said at the bill signing ceremony. "I'm offering resources of the state to the city to work in a constructive way with Mayor Daley to do everything we can possibly do to help stop this violence," said the governor.

The summer of 2008 will be remembered as especially violent. Blagojevich said there's been a child shot nearly every day since June 26, with 29 Chicago Public School students shot since last fall.
"Twenty-eight of those kids are African-American and Latino. Hard to imagine that that would be acceptable if that were, in fact, the case in other parts of the city or in a middle-class suburb somewhere," he said. "Something is wrong, and this violence has to stop."

Bringing in state troopers -- even National Guard helicopters to high-crime areas -- is still very much in the planning stages.

I think the reason that the "media" does not respond to McCain and follow him arround is that we've seen it for 8yrs already, what's new, we knwo he's just gonna agree with what ever talking poiints come out of the white house and that's that...so where would the interest be? So we could dee McCain stroll through a market places un protected?...LMAO McCain does not want the media there, he gets caught in too many lies that way...come on now.

Media stars will accompany Obama overseas

Herald Tribune By Jim Rutenberg Published: July 17, 2008

WASHINGTON: Senator John McCain's trip to Iraq last spring was a low-key affair:
With his ordinary retinue of reporters following him abroad, the NBC News anchor Brian Williams reported on his arrival in Baghdad from New York, with just two sentences tacked onto the "in other political news" portion of his newscast.

But when Obama heads for Iraq and other locations overseas this summer, Williams is planning to catch up with him in person, as are the other two evening news anchors, Charles Gibson of ABC and Katie Couric of CBS, who, like Williams, are far along in discussions to interview Obama on successive nights.

And while the anchors are jockeying for interviews with Obama at stops along his route, the regulars on the Obama campaign plane will have new seat mates: star political reporters from the major newspapers and magazines who are flocking to catch Obama's first overseas trip since becoming the presumptive nominee of his party.

The extraordinary coverage of Obama's trip reflects how the candidate remains an object of fascination in the news media, a built-in feature of being the first African-American presidential nominee for a major political party and a relative newcomer to the national stage.

But the coverage also feeds into concerns in McCain's campaign, and among Republicans in general, that the media is imbalanced in their coverage of the candidates, just as aides to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton felt during the primary season.

For the first time since the whole run has begun, John McCain was FORCED to talk about Afghanistan, and he simply repeated Obama, it was awesome. But for about a year now McCain, like BUSH has been silient on Afghanistan, no comments not plans, just divert to Iran. Obama has been ALL ALONG from day one talking about Afghnistan, and Bin Laden...you know the guy Bush does'nt even spend much time thinking about now and in turn niether does McCain since they share a brain.

We need to do as the Iraqis ask and get out, NO perminant bases there, and FOCUS on those who actually ATTACKED us on 911, you all remember that day right, when BIN LADEN attacked us, not SADAM, BIN LADEN. He lives, and breathes, and Bush and McCain are fine with that fact...how do you feel about it?

Surge meets Purge

Politico Jonathan Martin July 15, 2008
The McCain campaign is poking fun at Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for a report in today's New York Daily News that he had cleansed BarackObama.com of past criticism of the surge strategy in Iraq.

"BARACK OBAMA "REFINING" IRAQ POSITION ON OWN WEBSITE," blares the McCain release, which helpfully links to the former versions of the site.

The Daily News report by James Gordon Meek says: "Barack Obama's campaign scrubbed his presidential Web site over the weekend to remove criticism of the U.S. troop ???surge??? in Iraq, the Daily News has learned. The presumed Democratic nominee replaced his Iraq issue Web page, which had described the surge as a ???problem??? that had barely reduced violence. ???The surge is not working,??? Obama's old plan stated, citing a lack of Iraqi political cooperation but crediting Sunni sheiks - not U.S. military muscle - for quelling violence in Anbar Province. ???

"Obama's campaign posted a new Iraq plan Sunday night, which cites an "improved security situation" paid for with the blood of U.S. troops since the surge began in February 2007. It praises G.I.s' ???hard work, improved counterinsurgency tactics and enormous sacrifice.???

Campaign aide Wendy Morigi said Obama is ???not softening his criticism of the surge. We regularly update the Web site to reflect changes in current events.??? ???

McCain hits Obama on Iraq, outlines Afghanistan Plan

By Klaus Marre - The Hill Posted 07/15/08 12:50 p.m. [ET]

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain slammed his Democratic counterpart Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday for coming up with an Iraq policy without having observed the situation on the ground.

???I note that he is speaking today about his plans for Iraq and Afghanistan before he has even left, before he has talked to Gen. Petraeus, before he has seen the progress in Iraq, and before he has set foot in Afghanistan for the first time,??? McCain said, referencing the Illinois Democrat???s speech on national security earlier in the day. ???In my experience, fact-finding missions usually work best the other way around: first you assess the facts on the ground, then you present a new strategy.???

The Arizona Republican noted that he and Obama both agreed with President Bush at the start of the Iraq war but added that Obama was wrong in opposing the troop surge.

???Because of its success, the next president will inherit a situation in Iraq in which America???s enemies are on the run, and our soldiers are beginning to come home,??? McCain said.

The GOP standard-bearer also discussed his plans for Afghanistan, where, he said, ???the status quo is not acceptable??? and security has ???deteriorated.???

???Sen. Obama will tell you we can???t win in Afghanistan without losing in Iraq,??? McCain claimed, adding, ???With the right strategy and the right forces, we can succeed in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I know how to win wars. And if I???m elected president, I will turn around the war in Afghanistan, just as we have turned around the war in Iraq, with a comprehensive strategy for victory.???

McCain criticized the way the Afghanistan campaign is being conducted and vowed to send additional troops.

???One of the reasons there is no comprehensive campaign plan for Afghanistan is because we have violated one of the cardinal rules of any military operation: unity of command,??? McCain stated in New Mexico. ???Today there are no less than three different American military combatant commands operating in Afghanistan, as well as NATO, some of whose members have national restrictions on where their troops can go and what they can do. This is no way to run a war.???

Let the OIL companies DRILL on the 68,000,000 acres they already hold the leases on...WOW there's and idea...or maybe the 27,000,000 acres in the Naval Reserve....OMG theat's almost 90million acres, what will we do where will we DRILL, mention that Mrs Bush, see how far the gas prices "drop", oh wait Gas did NOT drop, only oil prices, and it had NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU.

Gore???s Activism less welcome when gas costs 4 Bucks

by Alexander Bolton The Hill Posted 07/16/08 04:33 p.m.

Al Gore hopes to put global warming back at the top of Washington???s agenda Thursday, but some Democrats in Congress are questioning his timing when they are getting pummeled by Republicans over record gas prices.

Gore hopes to deliver a major speech on the environment at Constitution Hall in Washington Thursday that will ???press the reset button on how people are looking at the energy crisis and the climate crisis,??? said Brian Hardwick, spokesman for Gore???s Alliance for Climate Protection.

The former vice president-turned-elder statesman has achieved rock-star status within his party, not to mention a Nobel Prize, for his environmental activism. But Democrats??? political troubles over the issue of gas prices and domestic drilling prompt some lawmakers to wonder about Gore???s timing.

The question some Democrats have is whether a high-profile speech about the importance of protecting the environment might be exploited by Republicans who want to portray their ideological opponents as caring more about polar bears than Americans who have had to pay record prices for gasoline.

???It depends on how it???s presented,??? said Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who emphasized he did not want to ???pre-empt??? Gore???s speech by telling him what to say.

???I think the American public will be much more receptive to arguments about climate change when gas prices aren???t so critical,??? said Rep. Zack Space, a freshman Democrat who represents a mostly rural district in Ohio.

Space and other Democrats say that gas prices have begun to overwhelm other issues.

Republicans are pouncing on Gore???s re-emergence, holding it up as proof that Democrats favor environmental policies that further escalate energy costs.

???Mr. Gore will yet again call attention to the policies called for by radical environmentalists that would result in even higher gas prices,??? said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Republican Leader John Boehner (Ohio).

Bush say's drill and oil dropped 6$ not 9, yet gas....holding strong, not below 4$ a gal? You gotta know there'ssomething off when 'BUSH" is being considered the voice of reason. Oh yeah why don't the oil companies drill on the 68million acres they hold the leases to now?

Bush Says Drill, Drill, Drill ??? and Oil Drops $9!

National Review Online Kudlow???s Money Politics Tuesday, July 15, 2008 1:07 p.m.

In a dramatic move yesterday President Bush removed the executive-branch moratorium on offshore drilling. Today, at a news conference, Bush repeated his new position, and slammed the Democratic Congress for not removing the congressional moratorium on the Outer Continental Shelf and elsewhere. Crude-oil futures for August delivery plunged $9.26, or 6.3 percent, almost immediately as Bush was speaking, bringing the barrel price down to $136.

Now isn???t this interesting?

Democrats keep saying that it will take 10 years or longer to produce oil from the offshore areas. And they say that oil prices won???t decline for at least that long. And they, along with Obama and McCain, bash so-called oil speculators. And today we had a real-world example as to why they are wrong. All of them. Reid, Pelosi, Obama, McCain ??? all of them.

Traders took a look at a feisty and aggressive George Bush and started selling the market well before a single new drop of oil has been lifted. What does this tell us? Well, if Congress moves to seal the deal, oil prices will probably keep on falling. That???s the way traders work. They discount the future. Psychology and expectations can turn on a dime.

The congressional ban on offshore drilling expires September 30, so that becomes a key date. A new report from Wall Street research house Sanford C. Bernstein says that California actually could start producing new oil within one year if the moratorium were lifted. The California oil is under shallow water and already has been explored. Drilling platforms have been in place since before the moratorium. They???re talking about 10 billion barrels worth off the coast of California.

There???s also a ???gang of 10??? in the Senate, five Republicans and five Democrats, that is trying to work a compromise deal on lifting the moratorium. So it???s possible a lot of action on this front could occur much sooner than people seem to think.

So I repeat: Drill, drill, drill. Deregulate, decontrol, and unleash the American energy industry. Those hated traders will then keep selling oil as the laws of supply and demand and free markets keep working.

Bravo for Bush. Bravo for the traders.

While I am a Obama supporter, I don't believe in any of the polls...National polls do not indicate what is going on in individual states and this is after all (remember 2000/2004) an electoral contest!...WBBJ!!!

McCain Closes the Gap (Dick Morris)

July 14, 2008 @ 11:08 am

Issues don't always flow from the top down ??? from the campaign hierarchy to the voters.
Sometimes they flow the other way, from an angered public upward.

This is the case with the oil drilling and energy issue.
Every time Americans gas up, they are reminded that the Democrats' refusal to allow oil drilling virtually anyplace has caused the long-term escalation in oil prices in the United States.

Democrats don't say they oppose all drilling, but they do.
You can drill, but not in Alaska, not offshore, not in the shale, etc.

McCain is benefiting and Obama suffering because of the drilling issue.
It is most likely this issue that is driving the closing of the race.
Rasmussen has the race tied for two days in a row in his tracking and Newsweek has the Obama lead collapsing from 15 points to three.

And it may be oil that is driving the difference.

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