Tag: Political Tap Dancing

Palin’s Pipeline

The Associated Press just published a long investigative piece on Sarah Palin’s vaunted pipeline success—and the parts she’s not talking about. It starts:

Gov. Sarah Palin’s signature accomplishment – a contract to build a 1,715-mile pipeline to bring natural gas from Alaska to the Lower 48—emerged from a flawed bidding process that narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration, an Associated Press investigation shows.

Beginning at the Republican National Convention in August, the McCain-Palin ticket has touted the pipeline as an example of how it would help America achieve energy independence.

“We’re building a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline, which is North America’s largest and most expensive infrastructure project ever, to flow those sources of energy into hungry markets,” Palin said during the Oct. 2 vice presidential debate.

Despite Palin’s boast of a smart and fair bidding process, the AP found that her team crafted terms that favored only a few independent pipeline companies and ultimately benefited the winner, TransCanada Corp. (TRP)

And contrary to the ballyhoo, there’s no guarantee the pipeline will ever be built; at a minimum, any project is years away, as TransCanada must first overcome major financial and regulatory hurdles.
In interviews and a review of records, the AP found:

— Instead of creating a process that would attract many potential builders, Palin slanted the terms away from an important group – the global energy giants that own the rights to the gas.

— Despite promises and legal guidance not to talk directly with potential bidders, Palin had meetings or phone calls with nearly every major candidate, including TransCanada.

— The leader of Palin’s pipeline team had been a partner at a lobbying firm where she worked on behalf of a TransCanada subsidiary. Also, that woman’s former business partner at the lobbying firm was TransCanada’s lead private lobbyist on the pipeline deal, interacting with legislators in the weeks before the vote to grant TransCanada the contract. Plus, a former TransCanada executive served as an outside consultant to Palin’s pipeline team.

— Under a different set of rules four years earlier, TransCanada had offered to build the pipeline without a state subsidy; under Palin, the company could receive a maximum $500 million.

OOPS!

Tax Calculator–Check For yourself

Taxes have emerged as an issue in the 2008 presidential race, with John McCain charging Barack Obama with planning to raise taxes, despite the Obama campaign’s pledge to reduce taxes for 95 percent of working families.

To help clarify the differences in the tax proposals of the two candidates, the Obama campaign this week launched an easy-to-use online tax calculator to help voters learn what they will save on their taxes under the Obama plan as opposed to McCain.

See here: http://taxcut.barackobama.com/

I know everyone is chomping at the bit on just who will be paying more  or less in taxes.  Check for yourself then make a decision.  Stop listening to the bullsh*t.

Please Make Her (Palin) Stop!

In the latest clip, which is already being viewed on video-sharing site YouTube, Ms Couric asks: “When it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?”

Mrs Palin replies: “I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media.”

Ms Couric: What, specifically?

Mrs Palin: “Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.”

Ms Couric: “Can you name a few?”

Mrs Palin: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, ‘wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?’ Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.”

Her faltering performance came in the latest installment of her cringe worthy interview with CBS News presenter Katie Couric. Last week she was seen rambling in response to Ms Couric’s questions about the threat posed by Russia.

Presidential candidate John McCain has been forced to step in and defend Mrs Palin, insisting she is ready for the White House and claiming she is underestimated.

Many keep saying let Palin be Plain, but when she is asked fairly simple questions she screws them up horribly.  Just make her stop!  Everytime she opens her mouth she sticks a size (whatever it is) in it.  Please do not let her ad-lib.

The Real Results Of The Bailout

The immediate line-up of both parties and the media behind the bailout plan for Wall Street stands in the starkest contrast to their indifference and inaction in regard to the plight of millions of American working people, who face a rising tide of home foreclosures, layoffs and sinking living standards. When it comes to the social needs of the people, the universal cry from corporate America and the two parties is, “There is no money,” but when the fortunes of the financial elite are threatened, the full power of the government and unlimited resources are marshaled virtually at a moment’s notice.

There was no suggestion in the statements of Bush and Paulson of any relief for the working class—nothing to stop home foreclosures or help those who have already lost their homes. Rather, hundreds of billions—and more likely trillions—of dollars in public funds will be used to prop up the banks.

The resulting bankrupting of the government will be used to justify a brutal assault on what remains of social programs, including Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, and demand even greater financial “sacrifices” from workers, whether the next administration is headed by Obama or McCain. Nothing could more clearly demonstrate that behind the façade of American democracy there stands a dictatorship of big business.

Everybody is applauding the swift action on this crisis but there will be a price to pay for the putting of corporations before the people.

Say It Ain’t So, Ralph!

It has been a great week for dumbass, bonehead statements by political insiders.  First, Charlie Black makes his now infamous terror attack comment and now the permanent presidential candidate Ralph Nader has joined into the fray.

Speaking with Colorado’s Rocky Mountain News, Nader accused Obama of attempting to “talk white” and appealing to “white guilt” in his quest to win the White House.

“There’s only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He’s half African-American,” Nader told the paper in comments published Tuesday.

“Whether that will make any difference, I don’t know. I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What’s keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn’t want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We’ll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards,” Nader added.

Please, that is just mental masturbation or as some pundit called it “verbal vomit”.  Since his present campaign has about as much steam as snail in a hurry, he is looking to press.  Nader has just shot himself in the foot.  While he, Nader, does have some planks in his independent platform that could have made him a bit more appealing to voters, crap like this will help drive the final nail in the coffin that is his campaign.

I can say that I agree that Obama has moved to the conservative side of the party since he became the presumptive nominee, but that is nothing unusual for a politician.  Sour grapes is not becoming.  Did not look good on Clinton; does not look good on Nader.