MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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Energy policy

Oh, Paris!

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Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad

The ad opens with Obama making his speech in front of 200,000 Berliners, which according to John McCain, is a bad thing. The chant Obama! Obama! is piped in to the strains of some music. There’s a montage of old people and things, including the Golden Girls and Tales from the Crypt.

Voice Over: He’s the oldest celebrity in the world.

Like super old.

Old enough to remember when dancing was a sin and beer was served in a bucket.

But is he ready to lead?

Cut to Paris Hilton, wearing a leopard swim item (I don’t know what to call it).

Paris Hilton: Hey, America, I’m Paris Hilton and I’m a celebrity, too.

Only, I’m not from the olden days and I’m not promising change, like that other guy.

I’m just hot.

But then that wrinkly white-haired guy used me in his ad, which I guess means I’m running for president.

So thanks for the endorsement, white-haired dude.

And I want America to know that I’m like totally ready to lead.

And now I want to present my energy policy for America. Just as soon as I finish reading this article on where I can fly to get the best tan.

(Reads Conde Nast’s Traveler magazine)

Oh, Maui. Loves it!

So, here’s my energy policy.

Barack wants to focus on new technologies to cut foreign oil dependency and McCain wants offshore drilling.

Well, why don’t we do a hybrid of both candidates’ ideas.

We can do limited offshore drilling, with strict environmental oversight while creating tax incentives to get Detroit making hybrid and electric cars. That way offshore drilling carries us until the new technologies kick in, which would then create new jobs and energy independence.

Energy crisis solved.

I’ll see you at the debates, bitches.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go pick out a new vice president. I’m thinking Rihanna. See you at the White House. Oh, and I might paint it pink. I hope that’s cool with you guys. Bye (blows a kiss to the camera).

I’m Paris Hilton and I approved this message because I think it’s totally hot.

August 6, 2008
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Compare and Contrast

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Obama: National Priority

Script:

John McCain.

He’s been in Washington for 26 years.

And as gas prices soared and dependence on oil exploded, McCain was voting against alternative energy, against higher mileage standards.

Barack Obama.

He’ll make energy independence an urgent national priority, raise mileage standards, fast-track technology for alternative fuels.

A thousand dollar tax cut to help families as we break the grip of foreign oil.

A real plan, and new energy.

August 5, 2008
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Political news roundup

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On His 47th Birthday, Obama Is All Business CBS News
(CHICAGO) – It’s Barack Obama’s 47th birthday, but from his campaign schedule you wouldn’t know it. Obama will hit the trail today to kick off what the campaign is calling “Energy Week.

Obama proposes tapping oil reserves to drive down gas prices AP

LANSING, Mich. – In a reversal, Barack Obama is proposing the government sell 70 million barrels of oil from its strategic petroleum stockpiles.

AP: Poll: McCain’s attack strategy paying dividends
Intensified attacks by Republican John McCain on the character of his Democratic opponent have coincided with Barack Obama losing a nine percentage point advantage in a national poll, which showed the candidates running dead even over the weekend.

CNN: Is McCain’s ‘Celeb’ ad accurate?
John McCain’s campaign got a lot of attention last week for its ad that likens Barack Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. The ad calls Obama “the biggest celebrity in the world,” but asks, “Is he ready to lead.” In addition to the flashy imagery, the ad also claims that Obama would raise taxes on electricity. But is that claim true? CNN’s Josh Levs reports.

Oil Futures Flat Despite Storm, Iran By CAROLYN CUI, Wall Street Journal
NEW YORK — Crude-oil futures were flat in jumpy trading Monday, as the latest Gulf of Mexico storm was seen causing little damage and traders kept Iran talks in abeyance.

McCain visiting motorcycle rally, nuke power plant AP

WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate John McCain hopes to enhance his appeal to blue-collar voters and those in the Northern Plains with a visit to a giant motorcycle rally in South Dakota.

August 4, 2008
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A good Obama comebacker

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“Pocket” TV Ad

Obama unveils energy plan, new attacks on McCain

(CNN) — Barack Obama’s campaign released a television ad Monday that calls for a windfall profits tax and accuses John McCain of being in the pocket of big oil.

The ad charges that major oil companies have donated $2 million to McCain’s campaign and says that “after one president in the pocket of big oil, we can’t afford another.”

McCain surrogate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Monday blasted the ad as being “dishonest.”

“That’s really sad,” he said on CNN’s “American Morning.” “I didn’t know that Obama had stooped to dishonesty.”

Romney said it was dishonest because corporations cannot give contributions to candidates and because employees of oil companies have also donated to Obama.

The Washington Post reported that McCain received $1.1 million from oil and gas industry executives and employees in June — three-quarters of which came after he called for lifting the ban on offshore drilling on June 16.

Obama’s ad sources the Washington Post and the Center for Responsive Politics, which showed that Obama has received about $345,000 from the oil and gas industry this year.

Under Obama’s proposal for a windfall profits tax, the government would tax some of the profits from big oil corporations and use it to provide a $1,000 rebate to people struggling with high energy costs.

Obama’s ad comes as he kicks of “Energy Week” — with stops planned in Ohio and Indiana where gas prices and rising heat bills will be on the agenda.

Obama travels to battleground Michigan on Monday to unveil details on his energy policy.

Read More

August 4, 2008
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The Rampant Audacity of the McCain Campaign

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This is rich.

John McCain released a new political advertisement that fingers the person responsible for the runaway energy costs in this country.

No, it is not greedy oil cartels, the Exxon-Mobils of this world. And you would be dangerously mistaken if you somehow blame the Saudis and other oil-producing nations of OPEC. Don’t even think of looking in the direction of Wall Streeters and other commodity traders manipulating and speculating on the price of crude oil.

Energy hungry developing nations like China and their industrialized kins in Western Europe don’t have anything to do with the runaway price of oil either.

World automakers who absolutely refuse to make energy-efficient vehicles and American consumers who have raised consumption to a new art form and who car-makers fear won’t buy their green cars are not accountable either.

No, none of the above.

After eight years of mendacious Republican misrule, including at least one war fraudulently sold to the American people as a way to lower the cost of energy, it is clear who is making the price of gas go up. In the words of the McCain campaign, it is:

“Obama! Obama! Obama!”

The ad is astonishing in both its simplicity and the degree to which it assumes Americans are truly stupid. I don’t know if this is saying, that no one has ever gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the American voters. This ad and much of the McCain campaign will put that idea to severe test.

The “Pump” ad:

The ad begins with a lone gas pump in a mirage-hear-haze like, what, desert? I can’t tell.

Then a woman speaks:

“Gas prices – $4, $5, no end in sight, because some in Washington are still saying no to drilling in America.

“No to independence from foreign oil.

“Who can you thank for rising prices at the pump?”

Cue to the ubiquitous “Obama! Obama! Obama” chants that we’ve hear too often in this campaign.

A silence is then followed by an announcer:

“One man knows we must now drill more in America and rescue our family budgets.

“Don’t hope for more energy, vote for it. McCain.”

Then the purveyor of this nonsense speaks:

“I’m John McCain and I approve this message.”

This is the kind of advertisement I would expect one of those crooked 527 groups to run. At least in those ads, you know not to expect accountability and the campaign can attempt to deny responsibility for it. That John McCain would stoop so low this early in the campaign tells you he’s either desperate, or he does not expect the dreaded MSM to call him on its sheer stupidity.

July 21, 2008
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Data point . . .

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Sen. Jim Webb brought up another subject on that video:

Speaking of oil going to $130, we should all remember that the month that Congress approved this war in Iraq, oil was $24 (a barrel).

Asked about the spectacle of Pres. George W. Bush panhandling around Saudi Arabia, offering the royal family there inducements to increase oil production and, thereby, lowering the price of crude oil, he said:

It’s kind of sad when you think about the fact that what we need here is a comprehensive energy strategy that takes into account all the different aspects, including nuclear. We haven’t had a new nuclear power plant in something like 30 years. Nuclear is clean, it’s safe when it’s done right.

The president of the United States is offering the Saudis the capabilities to go to nuclear when we’re not talking about that here. We need a really dramatically different national strategy on energy and I think all of us are coming to that conclusion. It’s just how we get there from here.

So we are going to get the Saudis nuclear and they’re going to bleed out all the oil and get the capital–I’m not picking on just the Saudis–but they’re going to be able to capitalize their future while we’re draining ours. That doesn’t make any sense.

May 22, 2008
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