The Urban Grind

Of course if a Republican was in power, CNN and all its liberal viewers would be ballistic. But since it’s their beloved Obama, it’s really no problem.

…But for the average American household, which has an income of over $62,000 a year, the increase in gas prices represents a relatively small portion of total spending.

For example, in 2008 gas prices were all over the news when they hit their all time high. But in 2010 when prices fell people barely mentioned them.

Yet spending on gas totaled only $12 more per week in 2008 than in 2010, according to numbers provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That $12 per week is roughly the same amount that BLS figures show people spent on “pets, toys, hobbies and playground equipment.”

Coincidentally, I had the misfortune of cathcing CNN, (as my sister was watching it.) Fareed Zakaria was discussing gas prices in America, and how some Americans believe them to be “too high.” He then went on to pompously list the higher prices other unnamed countries pay per gallon for their oil. So after the commercial break, Zakaria triumphantly announced that Norway pays the most for its oil at almost $10 per gallon. (This article seems to explain why the price in Norway is so high. For those of you not wanting to click on the link, let’s just say there’s some *very* heavy taxation involved, which Mr. Zakaria conveniently omitted.)

Now in a related bit of news, a Washington Post poll shows that only 33% of Democrats believe that Obama has any control over oil prices, whereas in 2006, 73% of them believed the Bush Administration had that power.

Hypocrites!

So much for helping struggling Americans and creating new jobs. The Obama administration has ordered a three year ban on off shore oil drilling.

Quiet words from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on 3/5, directly indicated a new three-year ban, at least in offshore oil drilling leases. Pure facts dictate this move will kill any American initiative to produce all of its oil independently. More than 2/3 of the American public supports such a move per a Rasmussen poll. It is unknown why the Obama Administration would make such a virulent move, and not allow America to become more oil-independent in a time of major global political upheaval.

President Bush had two bans rescinded in 2008 in The Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) which would have allowed drilling. But Salazar plans to eliminate the entire 2010-2015 Bush lease plan. No alternate plan is on paper yet. Evidently, Obama has no intention of opening up new areas for offshore drilling during his tenure in office. So in realty, huge amounts of assets in domestic energy will be wasted, while billions of additional dollars are spent on foreign oil.

It should be obvious by now that Obama doesn’t want America to become energy independent. Aside from treating Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with kid gloves, having government run health care and open borders, Obama clearly wants America to pay his fellow Muslims through the nose for our oil. And he’ll continue to blame all the acts of terrorism on tiny Israel.

That what former national security advisor to Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski says. Mr. Brzezinski has also been one of Obama’s top foreign policy advisors.

Here’s what Brzenski had to say when asked about how to prevent a Mumbai style attack in the U.S.

“You can’t prevent every terrorist attack,” said Brzezinski. “It’s impossible certainly to do that. But one at the same time has to take a lot of precautions, but not create a culture of fear in society, because a society that’s dominated by fear becomes a society that is very susceptible to demagogy.”

“We have to preserve our democracy. We have to keep our cool even if there are some terrorist attacks,” said Brzezinski.

Uh helloooo! Democracy is meaningless unless people have a right to life. In other words, good decent people have every right to go about their lives without having to worry about whether they’ll be blown up or taken as hostages.

So while America probably can’t prevent every single attack, I would say that at least 95% of them could be prevented. The way to do it is not by diplomacy, or working with other countries, or any of that p.c. baloney spewed by people clearly in bed with big oil. First off, America needs to stop all immigrations from Muslim countries. Any Muslims in America that voice support for terrorism should all be deported, or paid to leave. (That goes for their leftist American supporters too!) And most importantly, we need to find an alternative to oil. It’s not enough that we become domestically self sufficient. We need another energy source in our own back yard that will make oil worthless! That way, these Middle Eastern rogue states will have no weapon with which to blackmail the rest of the world.

Cyberella has found this list of coal producing areas of the United States, and a table of production broken down by state.

Although 90 percent of the country’s coal reserves are concentrated in 10 states, coal in mined in 27 states and can be found in even more. Montana has the most coal, 25 percent of demonstrated reserves. Wyoming, third among states with the most coal, is first in coal output, accounting for 18 percent of annual production.

U.S. coal reserves contain 12 times as much energy as all the oil in Saudi Arabia! A brief look at some numbers explains why coal is the country’s most abundant and important energy resource.

Now do we really want to continue sending billions of dollars to foreign rogue states that hate us, so we can get their oil? Why shouldn’t we keep that money in America, and use it to create more jobs? That sounds like the logical thing to do. Unless you’re a closet Muslim manchurian candidate that wants to bankrupt America.

According to Newsbusters, that’s what he told The San Francisco Chronicle in a January 2008 interview.

Let me sort of describe my overall policy.

What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.

That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.

The only thing I’ve said with respect to coal, I haven’t been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a (sic) ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can.
It’s just that it will bankrupt them.

Here’s the video.

Now can you imagine the uproar if McCain ever said something about bankrupting an entire American industry? We would never hear the end of it. And mind you, the Chronicle left out the part about bankrupting the coal industry, like the good little Obamabots they are.

Here’s what Angry Chinese Kahanist has to say:

This carbon bull is an outrage. He does not want us to be energy independent.

He wants to rob the coal miners and redistribute that money to something thats not even viable like solar and wind. Solar is not practical because it takes up a huge amount of horizontal space to make a little energy.

If you have a house and cover all of your roof with solar panels, it will power maybe a few refrigerators. It will not cover your heating or air conditioners because they use a huge amount of energy.

This is so typical of the left. First they gave us the Community Reinvestment Act, which is the cause of the financial mess we’re in. And now Obama wants to cut our defenses and kill our industries!

The Arctic may hold 90 billion barrels of oil!

Of course the Democrats and their environmentalist minions will whine about how it will take us years to make that oil available, and that the polar bears will suffer for it, blah, blah, blah.

Now in case you haven’t noticed, I love baby polar bears! But if it’s a choice between them having a “pristine” habitat, and Americans being forced to give money to Middle East rogue states for their oil, I say to hell with the bears and other animals!

Apparently, former Vice President Al Gore doesn’t think we’re paying enough for oil.

“The idea that we can drill our way out of this is just so absurd,” he said, comparing the push for offshore oil drilling — which has gained popularity and put environmentalists on the defense — to dealing with a hangover by having another drink.

“The defenders of the status quo are the ones who have dug us into this hole,” he said, commenting that Americans have been “so often fooled into finding a remedy for a problem” that has nothing to do with the problem at hand — pointing to the invasion of Iraq when America was attacked by terrorists in Afghanistan as an example.

“The engines of distraction and the great concentrated power of communication that you’ve seen turned on this issue or that issue is already hard at work,” he says. “They will say we can’t switch away from oil.”

“We have to switch our electricity generation system,” he says, noting that changing transportation fuels will take longer, before reiterating his plan to ensure that “100 percent of our electricity [comes] from renewable sources and carbon-constrained fuels over the next 10 years.”

Democrats, RINO’s and their enviro-wacko minions have a whole litany of excuses for why American cannot become energy independent. They’ll say “We can’t drill our way out of an energy crisis, it will take decades for the oil to flow, oil company profits are the real culprit,” etc.

Now personally, I say we need to find something besides oil in order to rid ourselves of the blackmailing from the Middle East rogue states. But for now, I’ll be happy with domestic oil. So keep these facts handy whenever someone pompously tells you that drilling for oil in Alaska or off the Gulf of Mexico would not be

Hat tip: Newman

The sooner we tell the rogue Arab oil states, and their catamites in the multinational oil companies to shove their oil up their asses, the better. And frankly, people like Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan (and their followers) are full of excrement when they whine about George Washington warning against foreign entanglements. They just can’t get it through their walnut-sized brains that depending on terrorist rogue regimes for our life-blood of oil IS A MAJOR foreign entanglement. After all, why should any other country be able to have a veto on our foreign or domestic policies?

Hopefully that will change, being that French car manufacturer Renault is considering the idea of building an electric car plant in Israel.

French carmaker Renault SA is studying a possible plan to build a manufacturing plant for electric cars in Israel, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Renault is exploring a potential partnership with Israeli entrepreneur and high-tech star Shai Agassi, spokeswoman Rochelle Chimenes said.

Few details about the project have yet been released.

Agassi and his partner Iden Ofer have founded an eco-minded joint venture called the “Better Place Project,” aimed at helping reduce greenhouse emissions by building a network of charging stations for electric cars across Israel.

Agassi and Ofer are to begin testing the pilot project in early 2009, according to an article that appeared in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.

If Renault decides to get involved, an agreement could be signed in the first half of 2008, Chimenes said.

Hat tip: Newman

Israel is developing it.

A unique system that can produce Hydrogen inside a car using common metals such as Magnesium and Aluminum was developed by an Israeli company. The system solves all of the obstacles associated with the manufacturing, transporting and storing of hydrogen to be used in cars. When it becomes commercial in a few years time, the system will be incorporated into cars that will cost about the same as existing conventional cars to run, and will be completely emission free.

This is great, but who knows if anything will come of this? The oil companies will never stand for something like this eating into their profits.