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Wednesday, April 18, 2012

April 18, 2012 - Morning Headlines

- After the U.S. removed the food aid pact with North Korea, the reclusive country is promising retaliation and potentially a nuclear attack (Yahoo): http://news.yahoo.com/angry-north-korea-threatens-retaliation-nuclear-test-expected-062854303.html

- The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's ruling that the Arizona law requiring voters to show proof of identification did not violate voters' constitutional rights. Other provisions were struck down (Fox News): http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2012/04/17/arizona-court-upholds-voter-id-law-strikes-down-critical-provision/

- More details are emerging about the Secret Service sex scandal. New details show the agents partied heavily before the summit (CBS News): http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57415475/sources-secret-service-personnel-partied-prior-to-summit/?tag=stack

- A new CBS News/New York Times poll shows Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are in a dead heat 46-46 (CBS News): http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57415623-503544/obama-romney-in-dead-heat-among-registered-voters-cbs-news-new-york-times-poll-finds/?tag=breakingnews

*** Be sure to vote in the new weekly LME "Buffet Rule" poll on the left ***    

9 comments:

  1. This one is for RKen:

    http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/obama-as-a-boy-ate-dog-meat/

    You and I have discussed the ridiculousness, exaggeration, silliness, etc. of the messages and info being spread in this campaign. The attack on Mitt Romney about his dog (seriously?) is getting old, and of course, embarrassingly, here is the yin to that yang.

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  2. No argument from me here on that lol, I share your frustration in how such trivial issues are played up as if they're important game changers.

    I love animals as much the next guy, but come on. If you want to make a point against Mitt Romney for President, do it on something meaningful and relevant like his record, his proposals, or his economic theories... not what he and/or his family does with their dog.

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    Replies
    1. You're preaching to the choir. Your way of putting it is 100% spot on: "I share your frustration in how such trivial issues are played up as if they're important game changers."

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  3. http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/tue-april-17-2012-julia-louis-dreyfus

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  4. Voter ID laws are constitutional. I told ya!

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  5. Obama moves to curb oil speculators
    http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/17/markets/obama-oil-speculators/index.htm?hpt=hp_t3

    Interesting snippet from the article:

    "None of these will bring gas prices down overnight," Obama said at a White House press. "But they will prevent market manipulation, and help protect consumers."

    Mr. President you should have just said, “None of these things will bring gas prices down.” How do I know? Well this blame oil speculator/manipulation witch hunt is kind of an annual event for you, with all due respect. For instance:

    From August 6, 2009
    FTC cracks down on oil market manipulation
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/08/06/us-usa-oil-rule-idUSTRE5753NQ20090806
    Natl Avg per Gallon Unleaded Gasoline $2.596 per gallon

    Then on July 19, 2010
    Commodity Manipulation May Be Easier to Prove After Overhaul
    http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-19/commodity-manipulation-may-be-easier-to-prove-with-u-s-financial-overhaul
    Natl Avg per Gallon Unleaded Gasoline $2.672 per gallon

    Last year on April 21, 2011
    Team to probe oil market fraud, manipulation: Obama
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/21/us-obama-oil-idUSTRE73K6WW20110421
    Natl Avg per Gallon Unleaded Gasoline $3.817 per gallon

    And the Natl Avg per Gallon Unleaded Gasoline this week is $3.867

    We are getting to know you pretty well Mr. President, so we know it isn’t your fault your annual attempts of rooting out manipulation haven’t work. So was it:
    A. Bush’s fault
    B. Tsunami’s fault
    C. Tea Party’s fault
    D. Anybody’s fault but yours

    Here are two more funny quotes from the article:

    “The moves come as Republicans seek to blame Obama for the high price of gas.”

    Then one sentence later:

    “Despite Republican attempts to blame Obama for high gas prices, the American public has been less inclined to finger the administration for the recent run up.”

    Here is what is funny, on April 1, 2008 CNN’s own Jack Cafferty described the Bush energy policy this way on The Situation Room:

    “These days, the idea of an energy policy is to put Dick Cheney in a closed, locked room out of sight of the public with some guys from Enron and some oil company guys, hammer out some kind of a deal, and then sit back and watch oil prices go from $28 when Bush was inaugurated to $111 now. “

    That’s amazing. In 2008 the President was WAS to blame for high gas prices. Today it’s everybody’s fault but the President. How convenient. LOL

    In fact here is a recent CNN headline:
    Stop finger-pointing on gas prices
    http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/03/opinion/verrastro-west-gas-prices/index.html

    I guess even CNN reporters don’t watch CNN (who can blame them though?) or at least The Situation Room, otherwise they would have heard Mr. Cafferty explain how it works.

    I would guess that once this plan doesn’t work, like the other attempts didn’t, 0bama can always fall back on the plan of taxing oil companies more to reduce our costs at the pump. Here’s a clue Mr. President, that won’t make the prices go down either.

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    Replies
    1. Another example of what hacks the media are:

      Will Offshore Drilling Lower Gas Prices?
      http://usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/cars-trucks/daily-news/080716-Will-Offshore-Drilling-Lower-Gas-Prices-/

      To prove that drilling wouldn’t lower costs this article takes the Monday July 14, 2008 lifting of the off shore drilling moratorium by Bush and writes an article about it two days later. The smoking gun to prove their point was that gas prices hadn’t fallen by the next day.

      Despite Bush's announcement {on Monday}and the drop in oil prices, however, CNN reports, "Gasoline prices in the U.S. maintained record highs at $4.109 a gallon Tuesday."

      Interesting segment from the article:

      Bush argues that lifting the offshore drilling ban would send an important psychological signal to markets, which could ease oil prices. According to NPR, "The Department of Energy says there may be 18 billion barrels of oil in coastal waters, but they also say that drilling for it would not have a significant impact on production or prices until 2030." Oil industry insiders "say drilling won't ease the oil pinch." Matthew Simmons, President of energy investment bank says, "It's really misleading to hold that out as a panacea. It won't work. It might work for our grandchildren."

      The AP cautions, "The president's direct link between record gas prices and offshore drilling glossed over a key point. Even if Congress agreed, the exploration for oil would take years to produce real results. It is not projected to reduce gas prices in the short term.

      So Bush said it would ease prices, everyone else said fat chance. Who was right? I’ll let you be the judge; National average July 14, 2008 was $4.054 according to http://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/. On January 19, 2009 (the day before 0bama was sworn in) the National average was $1.832.

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    2. Good morning, 32slim32! You are truly a good loudmouth member of the GOP! I love how right or wrong, you back what you say. That allows any reader of any bias to at least know why you feel how you feel!

      Like this:

      Then one sentence later:

      “Despite Republican attempts to blame Obama for high gas prices, the American public has been less inclined to finger the administration for the recent run up.”

      Here is what is funny, on April 1, 2008 CNN’s own Jack Cafferty described the Bush energy policy this way on The Situation Room:

      “These days, the idea of an energy policy is to put Dick Cheney in a closed, locked room out of sight of the public with some guys from Enron and some oil company guys, hammer out some kind of a deal, and then sit back and watch oil prices go from $28 when Bush was inaugurated to $111 now. “

      That’s amazing. In 2008 the President was WAS to blame for high gas prices. Today it’s everybody’s fault but the President. How convenient. LOL

      Boom! Point well taken, sir! Thank you!

      Delete
    3. The media bias is always astounding on these issues.

      Just don't mistake it for being one-sided. :)

      Ex: Fox News has been all over blaming President Obama for high gas prices, yet in 2008 under Bush they took the "you can't blame the President for global commodity prices!" stance.

      As found in countless articles. Here's a nice example:
      http://mediamatters.org/blog/201203050007

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