Senator McCain, Troops and Security Are No Joke
Why is John McCain treating our national security, literally, as a joke?
This week, Senator John McCain made clear that you shouldn't try to combat the rising cost of gas by checking your car's tire pressure, so your car gets more per gallon (something everyone from Al Gore to President Bush, from Joe Lieberman to Barack Obama, from NASCAR to environmental groups say you should do). He's even mocking the idea by handing out "joke" tire pressure gauges, and has a new childish web video out making a joke out of it.
But this is no joke.
In fact, it's so serious that I'd ask everyone to buy tire pressure gauges - available at sites like this -- because ultimately this is about our national security and our troops. Maybe John McCain wants to mock those things, but I sure don't.
Using less Middle East oil puts us in a stronger position to demand security in the region and fight terrorist organizations which often get much of their funding through oil profits. Using less Middle East oil could also keep us out of future wars, and save the lives of those Americans serving in uniform.
According to TIME magazine, John McCain's sole idea to "drill here and drill now" won't produce oil until the year 2030, and then it will only be 200,000 barrels per day. In comparison, the government estimates that if everyone made sure their car tires were fully inflated, we could start to reduce our oil consumption by 800,000 barrels per day, right now.
Imagine how much less Middle East oil we would consume if everyone checked their tires and made sure they were at full pressure. Over the course of the Bush administration, that would be about 2.3 billion barrels of oil we could have not gotten from the Middle East. All just by using the simple tire pressure gauge that John McCain thinks is a joke.
Here's something else that is no joke. Senator McCain has gotten $2 million from big oil, and in return, he's blocking investment into alternative energy, like wind and solar power. Here's just a sliver of what hasn't seen the light of day because Senator No has blocked it: a Renewable Energy Tax Credit Extension Worth 116,000 Jobs Per Year, Billions in Tax Credits For Renewable Energy Production, $290 Million For R&D On Renewable Energy, Including Wind Power. And, Senator McCain cast the deciding vote to cut funding for the Rural Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Program from $23 Million To $3 Million. All of these things would have led to us needing to purchase billions of fewer barrels of oil from the Middle East.
Laughing yet? Because those of us who love America and our troops sure aren't.
Maybe John McCain wants to mock the idea of simple ways we can use less oil and protect America and our troops, while blocking efforts to get off Middle East oil, but we take it dead serious.
This is about America's security and about whether we get sucked into military conflicts in the future to protect oil interests.
I say, show Senator McCain that he and his Big Oil buddies are the only ones laughing. Buy a tire pressure gauge right now to help America start buying 800,000 fewer barrels of oil a day.
Oh, and if you have the extra 89 cents to buy two, send the second one to John McCain with a note -- "America's security is no joke."
Crossposted at VetVoice.com
Follow Jon Soltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jonsoltz
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Maybe the best thing to conserve gas (besides inflating tires)
is to ration gasoline the way they did during WW2.
Maybe if everybody got a coupon book for gas, they would be forced to drive only when necessary.
Too many people in this world don't care as long as they still have a job and can afford it.
Some families have a car for the husband, wife and all their teen aged kids.
These are the ones that the raise in the minimum wage helps. A lot of Teens work and enjoy a good sized check to pay for their fancy cars.
"A lot of Teens work and enjoy a good sized check to pay for their fancy cars."
HA! those teens aren't paying for their fancy cars, daddy is.
Well said; Everything Americans can do right now to keep their personal accounts from hemorrhaging over the excessively high fuel prices is a good thing within reason. On the other hand, I really would like to see us run out of cheap oil today rather than tomorrow because only then will Americans fully commit themselves to solving the problem.
Let us now talk about how many millions of dollars Obama will get from Move On.
Oh, one of the biggest contributors to that is a group owned by a man who is notorious for speculating, George Soros. His windfall profits are in the billions per year, and speculation is primarily what drove up the oil prices in the past year.
Oh, but Obama wants to tax oil companies, ok, I understand, they are billionaires too, just like the speculators of those big hedge fund corporations. Fact is, the biggest growing group of millionaires and billionaires in this country are from hedge funds, and a good chunk has come from energy.
Lets compare though, 20 million just from Soros alone to Move On, which is only going to Obama and other key Senate and Congress seats, one of which in a state I live in which is already getting ugly, or 2 million to McCain from oil. If I'm not mistaken Obama has gotten money from big oil too, so he is getting the best of both worlds.
Go to factcheck.
Because it’s a federal PAC, MoveOn.org Political Action can’t accept donations greater than $5,000. And in fact, MoveOn.org Political Action is mostly funded by people who give less than $100 – folks who don’t have a lot of money but want to see a change. Through 2004, MoveOn.org Political Action raised approximately $11 million for 81 candidates from over 300,000 donors. In 2005, MoveOn.org Political Action grew to 3.2 million members and 125,000 members contributed $9 million to progressive candidates and campaigns (average donation: $45).
They keep comparing the "GWOT" to WWII, but they ridicule any attempt to pay for it, even in the most trivial ways. Have they forgotten the victory gardens, pot metal pennies, rationing and 90% top tax brackets? Never mind tire pressures, civilians couldn't buy tires!
What is amazing is how much can be conserved - without radically changing our lifestyles. LEED certified buildings pay for the extra work to get the certificate usually in less than a decade - and they tend to get tax breaks as well. Turning off the lights, the computers when not in use. Putting in thermo windows, using energy efficient bulbs. Keeping your car well tuned up, and yes - checking the tire pressure. All little things - but they really add up.
There *are* things that everyday folks can do. Not only does it save money, but it also reduces consumption, therefore the need for foreign oil, and therefore, does indeed impact the safety of our troops. And I agree - to mock these things is to trivialize the problems.
It is ironic - during the World Wars, there were tin drives, steel drives, rubber drives, bond sale drives. Today, in the middle of what really is a war over energy sources, are we asked to even carpool once per week, to turn off the lights not in use? Nope. We get asked to shop more.
Jon, you quote Time Magazine, but the various other organizations including the oil companies, say that it would take between 3 and 10 years to produce oil, depending on location and type of drilling. What you and other Liberals ignore is the thousands of jobs drilling would create, and the pressure on the OPEC to reduce oil, if for no other reason than to lull us into not drilling.
People have been told for generations to maintain proper tire pressure, for both safety and optimal fuel usage. This is nothing new. But any estimates about how much fuel would be saved are just that, estimates. Since noone knows how many people DO maintain proper tire inflation, there is no way of knowing for sure.
All you are doing here is highlighting your advocacy for Obama, a man for whom national poverty is to be desired.
Semper fi
And what you constantly ignore is the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of jobs that developing clean energy (such as new cars that don't run on oil, windmills for wind farming, solar power plants and solar power generators/power cells for houses) would create.
New industries create new jobs for people who are currently out of work and willing to train into a new trade.
Which do you think will create more jobs? New industries that forge new, clean, energy independen
Can you point to 1,000 jobs available right now? I won't ask about your numbers. There are the thousands, and perhaps more available right now if refineries begin to be built, drilling rigs and ships begin to be built, pipelines begin to be built. Right now. Please point to the same possibilities.
I think the oil business will create far more jobs NOW, than your new industries will do NOW. And that is Obama's point, in case you missed it. He says the economy is bad NOW, and we need new jobs NOW. Your "pie in the sky" jobs are not here NOW.
Try to stay on message. Pay attention to your Messiah's current message, not what he said yesterday.
Semper fi
There may be some that I would believe on these production dates the oil companies are not one of them. I would like to know how many drilling rigs are available in the next three years I heard that there is a five year wait for drilling ships. There are leases in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska why are they not drilling there? There are other oil leases in the lower forty eight that are not being drilled if they are being tied up in court that could be resolved by a executive order for nation security. Just like tire inflation how much oil is to found off shore is only a estimate. Lets get a true reason that current leases are not being drilled some say there is no oil there then turn back those leases and pursue new ones.
Do you lease a car? I don't, but many do. You can turn the car in before the lease expires, but guess what? You still get to pay for it! That said, the leases will expire naturally after 10 years. You guys just don't get it do you!?
Semper fi
They would create jobs eventually. First, the oil companies have to do surveying, exploration, etc, to *find* the oil. That's ignoring a somewhat cynical belief that they've already mapped out the entire US continental shelf, but still.
Not until the contract for the rig goes out are there any new jobs, and not until the rig actually enters service are there thousands of new jobs created.
And all of that ignores the two basic facts that there are millions of acres leased, but not drilled by the oil companies, and that US refining is at, or near capacity. So even if you have a few extra barrels of crude, where do you refine it? China?
Wow, you've just given the best argument for the Republicans I can imagine. The Democrats/Liberals have stonewalled new refineries for decades, along with reactors and coal fired plants. You are absolutely right. We must have new refineries, which take a couple of years, at least, to build.
As for OCS, those areas did not require leasing, as they are outside the limits of U.S. territory. They have been, in at least some cases, surveyed.
As for the 68M acres, you made the exact argument that the Democrats/Liberals don't want to hear. The land is leased before it is surveyed. Once leased, it can be surveyed. Only then do they know if it will produce. The VAST majority will NOT.
Semper fi
Republicans don't support conservation for one very simple reason: they haven't figured out how to use it to rip off the public.
Can you name a single prominent Republican who has said that, or even implied it? Please name that person and give date, time, and location, so that all can verify.
Semper fi
so you think criminals will come out and tell you they are going to steal from you before they take anything? get real. it's in their actions, and as the saying goes "follow the money!" obama isn't perfect. i disagree with him on a lot of things but he is better, by far, than mccain. mccain served his country, and so did i, i respect him for that. but his service alone does not qualify him to run a country. he doesn't have a competency in the details of who's fighting who in iraq and the differences between the groups, or of textbook history. either he his stupid or deliberately deceitful, but either way he isn't fit to be president. america has had enough of dumb and deceitful.
What a great post, but you miss the most important part.
DO NOT DRILL HERE.
We cannot trust the environmental policies of the U.S. So we should instead rely upon Mexico, China, the Middle East, Venezuela, Russia and others to safeguard drilling.
In fact, we're so bad about the environment that it makes sense to spend some of the fuel drilled just getting it here, and risking spillage in transportation. Because the environmental watchdog groups, the environmental activists, and the Government itself here cannot be trusted.
At least not like Mexico, or the Middle East, or the paragon of environmental care, China.
We're going to use the oil here, and "making and buying locally" is usually the watchword of environmentally sound purchases, but the U.S. cannot be trusted here.
Oh, and we should probably outsource farming to Brazil. Sure they'll bulldoze more rainforest for it, but that would be better than risking farming at the hands of Americans.
I mean buying locally was a good idea initially, but taking into account the problems that environmentalists here have with drilling, how can we be trusted to farm safely and cleanly? Obviously China or South America would be a better idea here... wouldn't it?
Sadly, practically everyone has one in their family - an uncle or cousin who teases other family members unmercifully and if they complain he (or she) call them a "baby" or says they "can't take a joke". This type of behaviour borders on abusive but often the victim is made to feel in the wrong.
Just as sadly, the Republicans have adopted this as their presidential campaign strategy for 2008. Aside from being reprehensible, this is stupid for many reasons. First, Senator Obama has proven over and over that he can stand up to this type of thing very well. Second, the Republicans and Senator McCain have completely demolished the one possible reason to vote for Senator McCain - "he's a nice old man - relatively harmlessly". Apparently not.
Eveyone needs to ask him or her self why is it that the Republicans and Senator McCain are focusing so much of their campaign on ridiculing Senator Obama. Clearly, because they believe Senator McCain is a weak candidate with nothing to shout about. And with this strategy, they have succeeded in convincing me of the same.
Someone needs to say it! Times are perilous and the last thing we need is a fratboy prankster who explains away foolishness and low down dirty behavior as "a little humor." How humorous was it to suggest his wife enter a beauty pageant where videos showed the women to be virtually naked? She could not have thought that funny. He's too funny. I never check my tires but I'm going to have them done tomorrow. Everybody has to do whatever they can do. I'll try to remember to laugh.
Obama is such a wimp, and has been holding himself up as America's savior. It's necessary to let a little air out of him and to let the public see it.
Semper fi
you dislike him because he has composure in public? instead of, say, calling his wife a c*nt in front of a room full of reporters (in case you didn't know, mccain did that)? so you are comfortable with the race to the WH being boiled down to two guys calling each other names? how does that inform the public as they need to be to make democracy function? if mccain is who i should vote for than he has to convince me. i want a truly compelling argument, backed up with fact not fancy, as to why he'd be the better president. no rhetoric, no talking points, but some REAL answers.
wanting to talk to your opposition is not wimpy, its how grown ups and civilized people are supposed to behave. attack ads give me no information about the candidate it represents. if obama were behaving as mccain is i would say the same thing. grow up. let me see a debate about the issues.
OK. McCain is wrong again. However to suggest that he is treating our national security as a joke is just as wrong. Save the rage for real issues not talking points coming from one campaign or another.
I think there is a fundamental flaw in the logic that making sure tires are properly inflated will decrease overall oil/gas consumption. It assumes that a change in micro-behavior will have a macro-cumulative effect. There is simply no way to measure a link from the change in personal behavior to a real change in the amount of demand. There variables of human activity are too great to make a calculable difference.
It also makes the mistake that increased efficiency will result in a decrease in demand. I'm not saying that efficiency is a bad thing, far from it, however one must recognize that efficiency has a great propensity to encourage more consumption, not less. When more work can be done with less money/energy, we often load up by consuming more or displacing money to other things that consume energy as well.
Obama's goals are lofty and border on completely unrealistic. As long as we create unattainable goals, the problems will only get worse.
proper tire pressure gives a car better gas mileage. better gas mileage means you put gas in your car less often. if everyone gets gasoline less often then that means they aren't using as much. its not that much of a leap.
"drill here and drill now" won't produce oil until the year 2030, and then it will only be 200,000 barrels per day."
That's what liberals said 30 years ago when Jimmy Carter was President.
"In comparison, the government estimates that if everyone made sure their car tires were fully inflated, we could start to reduce our oil consumption by 800,000 barrels per day, right now."
...and if everyone turned off their engines and coast more...
...and if drivers lost weight
...and if workers spent their days-off not driving,.
Freakin' ridiculous. But not as ridiculous as saying that we need a Winnie the Pooh foregin policy.
.....
Imagine how much less Middle East oil we would consume if everyone checked their tires and made sure they were at full pressure.
I've know this for some time now.
But this only reinforces my conviction - Rupublicans simply have no brains!
There is absolutely no thinking behind this post. Just reiteration of moronic speaking points!
Tell you what drrjp - go tell a NASCAR driver that he can win more races by simply reducing 1/4 of his air in his tires! Just make sure when you do this its in a laugh free neutral zone!
Unreal!
I haven't heard Republicans use the weight loss point yet . . .
We also said thirty years ago we need to start conserving and finding alternative renewable sources of energy. Instead, Reagan took the solar panels down off the white house, a Congress in thrall to big oil and the American auto industry postponed increasing mileage standards, and the auto industry made only token progress toward electric cars before pulling the plug (pardon the pun) and building bigger and faster gas guzzlers, etc. etc. If, after the first gas/Middle East crisis in the Seventies we'd started trying to plan our way out of our dependence on fossil fuels we'd be well on our way to a solution by now.
Super post, Mr. Soltz. This says it all - yes, it really is that simple. Oil is the source of our trouble. Does it rule us, or do we rule it?
What do we expect from a man who can only discuss the Vietman war; his claim to fame. It is now a new war, a new time and soon to be a new President. Lets hope it is not John McCain. More fighting for oil in Iraq while running from the enemy in Afganistan. You gotta love these people. Give me the celebrity. Obama 08!!!!!!!!!
Special Shipping Information : Tire Pressure Gauge
Total Shipping Cost for This Item ( Details )
Total Shipping Cost for This Item ( Details )
Standard Continental US PO Box $12.94
Continental US Street $12.94
APO/FPO Street $12.94
APO/FPO PO Box $12.94
I think I'll pass on that shipping.
Better still, pick one up at Wal-Mart or Target for a buck. Or simply take McCain's advice and make your driving experience more exciting.
Low tire pressure not only eats more gas, but increases the chance of a blowout. Blowouts on the highway are the leading cause of highway death. Here's one example of many:
http://www
Hey, they're already blogging about it!
http://www
Moreover, on slick surfaces, it increases your odds of a skid. I'm afraid that this rather stupid joke mongering by McCain will taunt him much more than his Chelsea/ Janet Reno humor, and may be his ultimate downfall.
Not just bad advice, but if followed, will surely lead to highway deaths and injuries (and possible lawsuits) that could well have been avoided. Care to retract your comments, JM?
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