MICHAEL O. ALLEN

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Oil

A Recurring Nightmare

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The BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe is a perfect Republican Party trap: Watch as a Democratic administration and Congress drown in the oil disaster while they clean up at the polls. Then Republicans return to office and begin the cycle by laying the bombs that’ll detonate under the next Democratic administration.

Does anyone remember Dick Cheney’s behind-the-door meetings with energy executives in W.’s maladministration? Or the two wars they bequeathed Americans?

For those who have forgotten, Brian Conners has written a recap at Associated Content that I think is worth reading. His earlier piece pointed fingers also.

Sure, President Barack Obama has been feckless in dealing with a disaster-not-of-his-making.

How difficult can it be to say that British Petroleum, besides paying for every penny that it costs to clean up the Gulf and other regions affected by this disaster, should have all of its officers brought to account for this disaster.

Yet, the president has  not been able to summon the passion to condemn this crime. Fine, set up a commission, if you must. But, first, BP executives should be wearing prison jumpsuits.

Cheney has some explaining to do. Before Congress.

A final question: Why is it that Halliburton (Dick Cheney’s employer) is always around looking guilty whenever something is hurting our nation?

June 3, 2010
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A shameful passage

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The United States Supreme Court illegitimately installed George W. Bush as president of the United States after the 2000 elections. Boy George was going to while away his time in office, rewarding friends in politics and the oil and defense industries with rich contracts.

That was why Dick Cheney held those meetings with energy interests behind closed doors. It was as evil a cabal as you could get. They were corrupt and lazy, to boot.

Then, history intervened.

Whatever you believed about the origins and the perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States, the events propelled our nation on a path that altered the course of our history. Every step along the way, when our nation’s leaders had opportunities to chose paths that would strengthen or imperil our nation, they chose wrong.

They chose torture, rather than follow the rule of law. They belittled and denigrated international laws and institutions, rather than harness the goodwill of the community of nations.

The new administration, a legitimately elected president, Barack Obama, bearing a mandate from the people of this country, has begun trying to repair the damage wrought by the last administration. They won’t always make the right decisions. Their steps might be, at times, unsure. But they have one thing George W. Bush never had. Legitimacy.

UPDATE: A special prosecutor should decide the fates of John Yoo, Jay C. Bybee and other memo writers. They should suffer the consequences for violations of international laws that their memos aided and abetted.

All lower level soldiers punished for following orders should have their punishment reduced (because we now know they did not torture on a whim but were, in fact, following orders).

Gen. Geoffrey Miller should be tried for War Crimes.

A Truth & Reconciliation Commission (senior members of the judiciary and the U.S. Congress; governed by strictures of Congressional testimony) should get sworn testimonies of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, George “Slam Dunk” Tenet, and Colin Powell. Their testimonies will be immunized if they tell the truth. Liars should be prosecuted for the wholesale violations of international laws (conventions against torture and the Geneva conventions) that occurred.

All will be consigned to history’s judgment.

April 22, 2009
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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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Fossil

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Blame the Black Guy

“John McCain. Where did you dig up that old fossil.”

This advertisement (I don’t know where it’s running) responds to Sen. John McCain’s idiotic ad blaming Sen. Barack Obama for the high cost of oil. It does not explicitly say that oil was less than $40 a barrel when George W. Bush became president (there was graph onscreen but unremarked upon) but it might as well have said it.

I don’t really want to talk about McCain. His campaign is hardly worth mentioning. The man is so corrupt, so false, so bankrupt of ideas that we might as well debate the fringe candidates running, Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney, and Ralph Nader.

The problem is that the Mainstream Media will do its dead level best to pump some air into the McCain sail. That is why we have to respond to some of these.

July 21, 2008
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Webb

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“Black America and Scots-Irish America are like tortured siblings. They both have long history and they both missed the boat when it came to the larger benefits that a lot of other people were able to receive. There’s a saying in the Appalachian mountains that they say to one another, and it’s, ‘if you’re poor and white, you’re out of sight,’ ” Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, said in this video.

“If this cultural group could get at the same table as black America you could rechange populist American politics. Because they have so much in common in terms of what they need out of government,” he added.

Listening to Jim Webb in this rather too brief snippet convinces me more than ever that he should be Sen. Barack Obama’s running mate. I don’t know if he’ll accept the vice-presidency but, I think, together, he and Obama could craft a message that could reshape the Democratic Party for generations to come.

I want to take race off the table as a wedge issue. I want to make the Republican Party a minority party that speaks to only a small percentage of Americans, the very wealthy. I believe in Webb and his wisdom. He should definitely be a part of the national dialogue.

He mentioned in the video a Wall Street Journal opinion-editorial article that he wrote in Oct. 2004. In Secret GOP Weapon: The Scots-Irish vote , Webb examined the Republican Party’s success wooing poor and working class whites to their cause:

To an outsider George W. Bush’s political demeanor seems little more than stumbling tautology. He utters his campaign message in clipped phrases, filled with bravado and repeated references to God, and to resoluteness of purpose. But to a trained eye and ear these performances have the deliberate balance of a country singer at the Grand Ole Opry.

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May 22, 2008
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