Here is an extensive fact-check of the statements Sarah Palin made in her speech last night, that I received in my email earlier today.
If you missed the Sarah Palin speech you can see it in full here.
Earlier today, I posted on the surprise announcement by John McCain, of his VP pick - Sarah Palin. Since then, I have collected several media/blogger responses, along with interviews by Palin, and her speech today. So, here is what others are saying about Sarah Palin as VP…Please also let me know what you think in comments.
What I think: Personally, I have told many people that I believed if Barack Obama did not pick Hillary as his VP, that John McCain would jump on the “historic election” bandwagon by putting a woman on his ticket. However, I do not believe that by doing this he will get any more of the Hillary vote. I do believe, that many Republican women will be fired-up by this, and turn out to vote for the first woman VP…Those women are not conserned with her ultra-conservative viewpoints, in fact, they will revel in it.
So, that’s what I think. What do you think? Check out the rest of this post, and let me know in comments.
Sarah Palin on energy, environment, and national security…
Oil and gas companies want you to believe that alternative sources of power (such as wind and solar), are not cost effective. They want you to believe that renewable power will be more costly for the consumer. And, in today’s bad economy, that can be quite troubling for most of us. But now, the truth is being revealed, in Colorado of all places.
From The Washington Post…
In Colorado — a state historically known for natural gas and fights over drilling — wind and solar power are fast becoming prominent parts of the energy mix. Wind capacity has quadrupled in the past 18 months, according to Gov. Bill Ritter (D), and Xcel has become the largest provider of wind power in the nation.
The politics and economics of energy are shifting here in ways that foretell debates across the country as states create renewable-energy mandates and the federal government moves toward limiting carbon emissions. One advocate calls Colorado “ground zero” for the looming battle over energy.
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Ten years ago, Xcel began offering wind-generated electricity, but it was a niche market for eco-conscious customers willing to pay extra. That changed in a significant way after 2004, when Xcel lost the referendum fight.
After legislative efforts failed, proponents of renewable energy turned to the ballot that year. The initiative, Amendment 37, required the state’s biggest utilities to generate 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources. Advocates found themselves facing off against Xcel, which said it feared for its bottom line.
“We ended up opposing that amendment. In retrospect, I wish we hadn’t,” said Frank Prager, Xcel’s vice president for environmental policy.
After months of following the debates on the US “oil crisis”, watching gasoline prices rise and then slowly decline and, spending most of July watching the endless parade of charts and graphs pro and con offshore drilling on C-SPAN, I’ve come to the conclusion that self-interest is clearly winning out over common sense.
Here’s why I’ve reached this conclusion.
1. A recent Rasmussen Report poll* found that 64% of the American public now supports opening up protected coastal areas to off-shore oil drilling. I suspect that many in this group are the same people who still don’t believe in global warming, still believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 bombings and, now believe that China is drilling for oil off the coast of Florida.
2. I’m willing to guess that the vast majority of the aforementioned 64% probably doesn’t own coastal property or work in the fishing or resort industry. I suspect that they have an image that coastal residents all live like residents in Malibu. NOT!
3. I’ll go out on a limb and say that the 55% of Americans (as cited by the Rasmussen poll) who agree with the Republican proposal for building more nuclear plants probably won’t want to have one of these new plants placed within 10 miles of their home or have the nuclear waste stored within a hundred miles. I also suspect that they would be highly upset if someone proposed placing a wind farm near their home. Too unsightly.
4. I suspect that the vast majority of people who now support off-shore drilling might be a little upset if their community was re-zoned or their property declared as eminent domain in order to build all of the support facilities for the new off-shore drilling platforms.
5. You don’t have to try to fool all of the people, all of the time. You only have to feed them enough mis-information to get them to put self interest ahead of common sense.
As Peter Dizikes pointed out in his article, “Did you hear that Alaska has more oil than the Middle East?” for Salon.com there are probably more myths, half truths and twists of science being pumped out about offshore oil drilling than there will ever be barrels of oil pumped from the sea.
The Onion has made a video that takes a serious (yet satirical) look at the Bush presidency. It would be a lot more funny, if it wasn’t so true. But, I guess it is important to lighten things up from time to time. So, here goes.
Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency
You can see more videos from The Onion here.
This is really funny. Paris Hilton Responds to John McCain’s Smear Ad on Barack Obama…
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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.
Here is a clip from Sen. Obama’s speech on energy, earlier today…
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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.
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.
Have you ever felt like you’ve duped or played for a fool? What about that old adage, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me? Well, conservatives have been played for fools, there is no other way to put it, by extreme environmentalists and anti-capitalist liberals determined to limit the population of the United States in order to save the planet.
The very real problem is conservatives have done such a good job of damning ALL liberal organizations that the “good” ones are thrown out with the scurrilous ones. And, there are some very good, honorable liberal organizations such as the ADL and the SPLC. Yes, they are liberal and have a liberal agenda, but they are honorable. As such, they deserve our respect. The more fascinating aspect of all of this is the “conservative” organizations doing the most damning of both the ADL and the SPLC are the ones who have been targeted by both organizations as extremists. If you are aren’t familiar with the workings of both, they both target the “bad guys” regardless of political leanings, taking out liberals as well as conservatives who truly give conservatives a bad name.
If a conservative organization, leader, politician, or lobbyist cannot stand up to liberal scrutiny, then something is wrong. I’m not talking ideological scrutiny, but an examination of associations and funding. I’ve yet to find anything about the SPLC that would eliminate it as a source other than the tawdry love life of Morris Dees. (and that doesn’t’ count). No matter how conservatives try to take either organization out, they can’t. The same does not hold true for anything sponsored by Soros or anything connected with William Greene, Richard Viguerie, or funded by Sun Myung Moon.
I keep a back-up archive of material dealing with various exposes at my 2nd site, The Subway Canaries. For this article I am not linking to any of the individuals mentioned. You can track them over at The Subway Canaries, which is now on the SPLC’s resource list. (FYI - At The Subway Canaries you will find an extensive ‘expose’ into the background of the SPLC).
Thursday in Part I of my Pink Flamingo expose of the anti-immigration roots, I discussed the history of the humanity within the GOP. The Republican Party has a glorious history of abolition, and the protection of the innocent, be it the life of the unborn or insuring the safety of the escaping slave through the underground railroad. Consequently, since the co-opting of the “conservative” agenda by John Tanton and his minions, this beautiful history of protecting those who need it most has been cast aside for a more “conservative” agenda of protecting our borders. Even the established and highly respected Front Page has dealt with John Tanton and the extreme liberal environmental roots of the anti-immigration industry.
Barack Obama was in Jacksonville, Florida today. He talked about the rising cost of gas prices, and his opposition of offshore drilling. See video and what other bloggers are saying. And, 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.
Breaking: Cheney’s Office Pushed for Trims to EPA Congressional Testimony
Vice President Cheney’s office pushed for major deletions in congressional testimony on the public health consequences of climate change, fearing the presentation might make it harder to avoid regulating greenhouse gases, a former EPA officials said.
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TPM is reporting…
Vice President Dick Cheney’s office apparently worked to cut swaths of the Center for Disease Control’s congressional testimony on the effects of greenhouse gases.
The information was revealed in a letter from recently-resigned associate deputy EPA administrator, Jason Burnett, obtained by the AP, to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA):
From Think Progress…
The White House’s deletions — which were “overwhelmingly denounced” by scientists and environmental health experts — included “details on how many people might be adversely affected because of increased warming and the scientific basis for some of the CDC’s analysis on what kinds of diseases might be spread in a warmer climate and rising sea levels.” (See the unredacted testimony here.)
Much more to come on this.
Answering the question, Where are all the women political bloggers? Well, if you are here, you have found them. We are dedicated to giving women bloggers a voice, starting with our list of over 500 women political bloggers. And now, in addition to guest bloggers, and our growing community, we will also feature regular contributing editors.
The Political Voices of Women