As reported by The New York Times:

The United States stepped up the diplomatic skirmish with its left-wing adversaries in Latin America on Friday, saying it would expel the Venezuelan ambassador and declaring that Venezuela’s top two intelligence officials had supported the “narco-terrorist activities” of rebels in the region.

The moves heightened the political tensions that have been building between the United States, Venezuela and Bolivia in recent days. On Wednesday, Bolivia’s embattled president, Evo Morales, expelled the American ambassador there, Philip S. Goldberg, accusing him of supporting rebellious groups in eastern Bolivia.

Then on Thursday, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela said he was expelling the American ambassador to his country, Patrick Duddy, contending that an American-supported coup plot had been discovered.

The State Department responded by declaring Bolivia’s ambassador to Washington persona non grata. Then on Friday morning, it said it would expel Venezuela’s ambassador, while the Treasury Department accused the Venezuelan intelligence officials of aiding Colombia’s largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, “even as it terrorized and kidnapped innocents.”

The latest moves represent a low point in Venezuela’s political relations with the United States, which imported more than $40 billion in oil from Venezuela last year. Trade between the countries has remained resilient, topping $50 billion in 2007, despite repeated threats by Mr. Chávez to halt oil exports to the United States, a warning he reiterated on Thursday

In her post “We live in a global village“, Political Voices of Women blogger Paula Hall raises the question of why the US Presidential Candidates have seldom addressed this issue:

It is understandable that the American foreign policies are focused on the Middle East. After all, thousands of American soldiers and millions of Iraqis have died in the Iraq war. But I am curious to know what do the two candidates for the White House think about Latin American countries.

I read today that the US Ambassador in Venezuela has 72 hours to leave the country. The Venezuelan President, Hugo Chaves, is expelling the American Ambassador. So is the Bolivian President, Evo Morales. And Venezuela is a major oil supplier to the United Sates, which it means America, is the number one client of Venezuela.

Not to mention Brazil’s large oil exports to the US. And Brazil is also having problems with Bolivia over natural gas production. The border between the two countries has been closed and relations are at it worst ever.

With all the talk about renewable energy, gas prices and so forth, how can the United States overlooks such countries? We live in a global village under a global economy. All decisions are important and the consequences of it will affect us all.

What are your thoughts on the US’ Latin American foreign relations policy?

In the following clip from Larry King Live, Bill Mahr points out: why Hillary Clinton would be a good VP choice (believe it or not; why the Obama campaign is losing much of its luster with progressives; the role that race is playing in the presidential campaign, and more.

url:http://www.politicstv.com/blog/?p=4157

A feast for any political junkie

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Just in case you haven’t seen the controversial video and commentary, here is a video clip…



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So…What do you think? Does this help or hurt McCain? What about Obama? Or, is it just plain silly? Personally, I hate attack ads, especially when they provide no helpful information for voters, at least the Hilton response, had addressed an issue. Let me know what you think in comments.

See more on this at BlogHer.

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What do you think of the Obama energy plan? Let me know in comments.

If you are interested in reading the full transcript of todays speech, it is here on the Obama website.This is the Obama New Energy For America Plan, as seen on his website (see full plan pdf here)…

• Provide short‐term relief to American families facing pain at the pump
• Help create five million new jobs by strategically investing $150 billion over the next ten years to catalyze private efforts to build a clean energy future.
• Within 10 years save more oil than we currently import from the Middle East and Venezuela combined.
• Put 1 million Plug‐In Hybrid cars – cars that can get up to 150 miles per gallon – on the road by 2015, cars that we will work to make sure are built here in America.
• Ensure 10 percent of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012, and 25 percent by 2025.
• Implement an economy‐wide cap‐and‐trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.

From CNN Politics…

Obama has previously said he was opposed to using the strategic reserves, but on Monday he proposed selling 70 million barrels of oil from the reserves in order to lower gas prices.

Speaking before a crowd in Lansing, Michigan, the senator from Illinois said the country’s “addiction to oil … is one of the most dangerous and urgent threats this nation has ever faced.”

Obama unveiled his energy plan, which includes a windfall profits tax on big oil corporations that would be used to provide a $1,000 rebate to people struggling with high energy costs.

Here is the full video of speech…

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Here is what other bloggers are saying about Barack Obama’s Energy Policy…

BlogHer Contributing Editor Erin Kotecki Vest…

As the Senator discussed his very detailed New Energy for American plan, touted by Climate Progress as “…easily the best energy plan ever put forward by a nominee of either party…” republicans were emailing me to let me know they were handing out tire gauges to mock Obama’s reminders that keeping your tires properly inflated saves gas.

From MyDD…

I love the rebate plan; it’s straight from the HRC playbook and presents us with an opportunity to use a wedge issue against McCain and the pubs. McCain’s spokeswoman indicated that he was against the rebate, so Obama has a real opportunity to drive home the narrative that McCain would rather protect oil companies from taxes than provide relief to struggling families. Obama has to stick with this narrative and make his windfall profits rebate plan the primary focus of this week.

From The CarpetBagger Report…

From a purely political perspective, all of this is pretty important. It reminds voters that McCain has been around for a generation, and he’s failed ever test of energy policy miserably. It reinforces the notion that while Obama may be open to compromise, he still knows that increased coastal drilling is an ineffective Republican gimmick. And it also characterizes McCain as being even further to the right than the Bush administration.

Obama also tried to strike a balance between short-term relief and long-term wisdom.

From Blue Hampshire Politics…

I just saw the tail end of his speech today, and I was impressed. In the portion I saw, he managed to frame his position on offshore drilling as being against the massive giveaway to the oil companies that it represents — which I believe is the correct frame. It’s a massive giveaway for very little gain. We can argue about the safety and environmental concerns, but the economics of it are undisputed — millions in profits for oil companies exploiting our national resources in exchange for a 0.2% increase in global production.

Did you see the Obama speech today? What do you think about the New Obama Energy Plan? Let me know what you think in comments.

This is from a post by Carol Nissen at the Obama Community Blog…

“Obama risks ire of Voters by opposing new oil drilling” (From AP of course, they make almost every single headline on Obama something negative) I think they have NO idea of how angry the American people are at having their country trashed for the past 8 years. It’s NOT just the oil, it’s the un necessary Iraq war, the falling apart infrastructure, the self serving of many politicians, the trampling of the constitution, the lowest ranked healthcare of an industrial nation, the treatment of our soliders, on and on and on.

The truth is the only ones who are going to have the “ire” are the already obscenely profiting oil companies. All this talk of Obama being “uppity”, “arrogant”, etc. stinks to me of a bunch of good ole boys who just might not get their way. The truth is there is going to be a big struggle in this country over how we get our energy and the fossil fuel gang has no plans for being replaced anytime soon. Why that’s why GWB was elected…and now that he and his cronies have screwed things up royally, well McCain will say and do as he’s told.

From The CNN Political Ticker…

Sen. Barack Obama stood his ground Wednesday in opposing what he calls the “scheme” of offshore drilling, during a campaign event in Springfield, Missouri.

“The oil companies are shoving this thing down the throats of Congress, because they know everybody wants to try to pretend they’re doing something about the energy crisis,” Obama said. “This is not real. I know it’s tempting. The polls say its one of the ways that a majority of Americans think we’re going to solve this problem, but it’s not real.”

“I understand how desperate folks are. If I thought that I could provide you some immediate relief on gas by drilling off the shores of California and New Jersey… I’d do it.”

But the Democratic presidential candidate added, “The soonest you would see any drop of oil from drilling off our shores would be 10 years from now….The most you would end up saving 10 years or 20 years from now would be a few cents on the gallon, although at that point, I figure oil might be $12 a gallon.”

From The Truth About Obama and McCain On Energy…

Today John McCain is continuing to campaign on an energy plan that won’t actually help with energy costs and launching more false attacks against Barack Obama, attacks that have already been debunked. What McCain won’t discuss is that his recent support for off-shore drilling, and his previous record of opposing renewable fuels and failing to crack down on excessive profits, may not help American families struggling with increased energy costs, but have benefited McCain’s campaign, with thousands more in donations from big oil.

Gov. Schwarzenegger put it best: Anyone Who Tells You That Ending The Ban On Offshore Drilling Will Lower Gas Prices “Anytime Soon Is Blowing Smoke.” “In a strong rebuke Thursday of lifting the ban on U.S. offshore oil drilling, California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed to knock the standard-bearers of his party: President Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain. Schwarzenegger, a long critic of his party of the environment, used surprisingly frank language to buck politicians who support lifting the 27-year-old ban of offshore drilling. He did not criticize anyone by name. ‘Politicians have been throwing around all kinds of ideas in response to the skyrocketing energy prices, from the rethinking of nuclear power to pushing biofuels and more renewables and ending the ban on offshore drilling, it goes on and on the list,’ Schwarzenegger said. … ‘But, anyone who tells you this will lower our gas prices anytime soon is blowing smoke.’”

More record profits for the oil companies. Shocking! While everyday people can’t even afford the gas it takes to get to their jobs, Big Oil continues to celebrate high prices at the pump, with record profits.

From The New York Times – Rising Oil Prices Swell Profits at Exxon and Shell…

Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, reported on Thursday that second-quarter income rose 14 percent, to $11.68 billion, the highest-ever for an American company.

Net income of $2.22 a share compared with $10.26 billion, or $1.83 a share, in the quarter a year ago.

Revenue rose 40 percent, to $138.1 billion, from $98.4 billion in the quarter a year ago.

Excluding an after-tax charge of $290 million tied to an Exxon Valdez court settlement, earnings were $11.97 billion, or $2.27 a share.

From ABC News – Money Beat…

For big oil, 2008 has been a very good year. How good? Well, it’s even better than last year, when the combined sales of the top five oil companies added up to $1.5 trillion — that’s greater than the GDP of Canada.

Since then, the price of crude has soared by as much as 50 percent while the price of natural gas has also taken off. And though oil has had a significant drop from its high of above $140 a barrel for the second quarter, the benefits of high oil are clearly noted in balance sheets of the world’s largest oil companies.

And if that doesn’t make your blood boil…

Massive Profits, High Gas Prices and $33 billion in Taxpayer Giveaways to Big Oil…

Over the next 5 years oil companies will receive $33 billion in taxpayer funded giveaways.According to the report set to be released tomorrow morning by the Friends of the Earth, (pdf) the $33 billion in taxpayer dollars will come to Big Oil through tax loopholes, royalty rollbacks and research and development subsidies.

I wrote a post a few months ago about Gas Prices, it also included tips on saving money at the pump. My friend and Contributing Editor to The Political Voices of Women, Pamela Lyn, wrote a very popular post on What is the Real Reason Gas Prices Are So High?

What do you think about Big Oil reporting record profits? It seems to me, there is really no reason for oil companies to do anything to help lower gas prices. Let me know what you think in comments.

Al Gore wants Americans to abandon electricity that is generated by fossil fuels, and instead develop environmentally friendly power. Gore thinks we can do this within ten years, what do you think?

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From The New York Times – Gore Calls for Carbon-Free Electric Power…

Former Vice President Al Gore said on Thursday that Americans must abandon electricity generated by fossil fuels within a decade and rely on the sun, the winds and other environmentally friendly sources of power, or risk losing their national security as well as their creature comforts.“The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk,” Mr. Gore said in a speech to an energy conference here. “The future of human civilization is at stake.”

From TreeHugger…

There’s also a warning from Gore: If we don’t act, the price of oil will keep rising because of demand from China and India, most of the world will be at the mercy of oil-producing countries, and irreparable harm will be done to the planet and the ecosystems that support our life.

From The Slant…

It appears even Al Gore (right) can’t get congressional Democrats to move quickly in addressing global warming.

According to The Hill, activism to save the world from greenhouse gases and global warming are taking a backseat to the hue and cry over $4-a-gallon gas.

The big concern: Appearing too much of a tree-hugger in a close presidential election would leave Democrats open to political reprisals from Republicans. The last thing Democrats — even those from an environmentally conscience state like Florida — want is to be seen as “soft” on energy.

[cross-posted at The Care2 Election Blog]

If you’ve been following the discussions about the rising price of oil, (and who isn’t these days), it is clear that there is a fourth branch of the US government. Its name is “The Oil Industry” and this week it’s become pretty clear that it doesn’t matter who’s in control in Congress because what the oil industry wants, the oil industry gets.

While Congressional Republicans claim that they were only looking out for their constituencies’ with their repeated calls for expanding the oil industry’s drilling rights to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as well to the coastlines of Florida and California, Congressional Democrats are asking why the oil industry is not drilling on the 68 million acres ( much of which was previously protected public land) which they are warehousing.

Meanwhile, the US Supreme Court reduced ExxonMobil’s punitive damages liability for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska to to $500 million, one tenth of the jury’s original award of $5 billion.

And today, oil prices reached a new high of $140/barrel due to a weak US dollar and speculative trading.

Is there anyone who still wonders what was discussed during Vice President Dick Cheney’s 2001 Energy Task Force meetings?

The Fourth Branch of Government is in control.

In the following video Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) speaks in favor of the Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act aka the “Use It or Lose It” Act (H.R. 6251)

Also See:

Close Loopholes For Speculators and Gas Prices Will Go Down

So…What do you think? It seems crazy to me, that speculators only have to put 5 to 7% down on these oil deals, when at least 50% is required for stock transactions. It’s no wonder this is happening, with such a small investment bringing in huge profits.

If speculators are stopped, could gas prices get back to $2.00 a gallon? Do we need to get the speculators out of the oil business? It seems to me it a great place to start.

Sign a petition to stop off-shore drilling.