More Political Pandering

I have read with interest the acceptance speech of Senator Obama and I thought I might just point out some of the pandering contained therein. The oratory contained no less than 16 promises. I doubt that if elected President he could bring about even 10% of them. It will be interesting to see how many promises Senator McCain makes because he won’t be able to bring about any higher percentage.

It is interesting to note that Congress of which both Obama and McCain are members have not been able to effect the changes they are presenting us. Of course, it is well know that Senator Obama has spent his entire short Congressional career running for President.

Considering that most of his speech was finding fault with the Bush administration and trying to tie McCain to it, here are his quotes and my comments.

“[Tonight] more of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet.”
Congress passed the laws to de-regulate the banking and mortgage industry.

“[Tonight] more of you have … tuition that’s beyond your reach.”
Liberal universities set their tuition fees. Of course, the liberals would like to take more money from the rich to subsidize tuition.

“This country is more decent than one where a woman in Ohio, on the brink of retirement, finds herself one illness away from disaster after a lifetime of hard work.”
I’m not quite sure what the Bush administration has to do with this woman’s illness.

“We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets…”
Surveys show that most of these veterans choose to sleep on the streets.

“Why else would he [McCain] define middle-class as someone making under five million dollars a year?”
Senator McCain never so defined the middle-class. He did say that a rich person might be defined as someone making that amount.

“How else could he propose hundreds of billions in tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies but not one penny of tax relief to more than one hundred million Americans?”
Senator McCain has consistently proposed keeping the current tax cuts for individuals while you have proposed raising taxes.

“How else could he offer … a plan that would privatize Social Security and gamble your retirement?”
Investing in equities is not gambling. In fact, most investment managers agree that retirees will run out of money if they don’t continue to invest at least 40% of their portfolios in equities. Let’s see what kind of investments Senator Obama uses.

“For over two decades, he’s [McCain] subscribed to that old … hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else.”
Well, that was the philosophy that John F. Kennedy subscribed to. And, it worked.

“In Washington … what it really means is … Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps – even if you don’t have boots.”
Oops, something Senator Biden believes in.

“We measure the strength of our economy [on] … whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job.”
This waitress can probably already do that. It’s called FMLA.

“Businesses should live up to their responsibilities to create American jobs…”
Well, maybe that’s what the responsibility of a business should be in a socialist economy. In a free-enterprise economy, businesses have a responsibility to their shareholders to make a fair return on investment. Creating jobs is a by-product of a successful business. This, folks, is the true mantra of a socialist.

“[John McCain said] no to renewable fuels.”
You mean those renewable fuels that are driving up the cost of food worldwide. Another liberal debacle of trying to manage the economy.

“Drilling is a stop-gap measure.”
Maybe, but why are you so against it? Perhaps you think we should keep importing oil from unfriendly nations.

“I will find ways to safely harness nuclear power.”
“Duhh – we already do that.”

“[I] made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights.
How come your buddy Clinton didn’t do that?

“[McCain] won’t even go to the cave where he [bin Laden] lives.”
And, just where is that cave, Mr. Obama? And, why haven’t you gone there?

“We are the party of Kennedy.”
You mean the Kennedy that put through the biggest tax cut in this nation’s history and successfully turned around a recession? By putting more money back in the hands of the people? Something called supply-side economics? The fact is the democratic party of today is not the party of Kennedy. What have you liberals done with that party?

“Don’t tell me that Democrats won’t keep us safe.”
I’ll take that challenge. Democrats won’t keep us safe! Carter made disastrous military spending cuts. Clinton consistently avoided dealing with the terrorists. Clinton’s secretary of state said that we “are not the police of the world.” I guess Clinton believes that we should just stand by and watch people being oppressed and killed.

“I will end this war in Iraq responsibly.”
But not with dignity or victory.

“I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons...”
I didn’t know the Bush administration stopped.

“Passions fly on immigration, but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers.”
So, we should keep anchor baby illegal alien mothers in the country but not let them work. By the way, any illegal alien mother can take their anchor child back home to her home country.

SPRINGSTEEN

The Woodbridge Community Park hosted Josh Tanner and his SPRINGSTEEN tribute band to end the summer concert series put on by the city of Irvine. The audio is not so good on my little Sony camera but it was an awesome rock concert. Most of the bass is supressed. Also, it was getting quite dark as they played Born in the USA past 8 pm.
The first video is the north end of South Lake as I was walking from my home to the Woodbridge Community Park. Tht structure out in the lake is a gazebo.

When is Fuel Not a Fuel?

Jason Grumet is the energy advisor for Mr. Obama. Recently I saw an interview that Mr. Grumet gave in which he claimed that we "need to promote alternate fuels for automobiles like electricity."

Now, Mr. Grumet is probably a smart man and maybe he just misspoke. Or, perhaps basic science and the laws of thermodynamics are not his strong suit.

So Mr. Grumet, it may come as a surprise to you but electricity is not a fuel. This goes to the core of how we use energy to move people from place to place.

From Wikipedia: "Fuel is any material that is burned or altered in order to obtain energy. Fuel releases its energy either through a chemical reaction means, such as combustion, or nuclear means, such as nuclear fission or nuclear fusion. An important property of a useful fuel is that its energy can be stored to be released only when needed, and that the release is controlled in such a way that the energy can be harnessed to produce work."

Electricity is a form of energy but it is not a fuel. Electricity is a flexible form of energy in that it can be transported and stored as an electrical charge with high efficiency.

So, for those of you who may have been misled to think that powering your automobile with electricity will result in less fossil fuel being burned, just what fuel will be used to generate that electricity? Currently about 95% of all electricity produced in this country comes from fuels like oil, natural gas and coal. Most of the remainder comes from solar, nuclear, and hydroelectric. Switching to electrically powered vehicles does not, in and of itself, reduce reliance on oil or reduce the production of carbon dioxide as a by-product. It would seem that Mr. Grumet does not understand this concept.

It would be interesting to know what is the true efficiency of the different fuels and forms of using the energy produced thereof to move humans and goods. For instance, what is the true energy cost of buring oil or coal? How much energy is consumed to locate it, extract it, transport it, process it, and deliver it to a vehicle? I could argue that wood might be the most efficient fuel when considering all of the other energy costs. Ultimately, the market should give us a guide as to the true cost of a fuel. When I was involved in the nuclear energy marketplace, I always wondered when the breakeven point is reached in terms of net positive energy produced from a new nuclear power plant. Consider all of the materials, work and services that goes into producing a power plant and all of the energy consumed along the way. When is the energy payback reached?

So, Mr. Grumet, before we can allow the government to mandate that all of our vehicles use electricity as an energy source we need to see where that energy is coming from. Your boss doesn't think that the use of nuclear energy is in the mix.

No Contest

For your reading pleasure:
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=303952351194789
Update: As of 8/20/08, three days after the event, McCain is leading Obama in the poles by 5% up from even before the event and an Obama 7% lead in July. Reason and logic quite often prevail.

Yes, I do Have a Life

Every other week on Saturday evening there is a concert on the lake in Irvine. Actually, North Lake as there are two lakes in Woodbridge Village. I understand that some of you may think that these are just big ponds but we call them lakes.

http://www.wva.org/

Two weeks ago we had the Orange County Philarmonic Orchestra. This past saturday evening it was The Ho-Dads, a great roak-n-roll group: http://www.hodads.com/ Click on "Videos" to see some of their music.

The tradition is to bring some wine, cheese and other snacks. It's very much like the band concerts on Cape Cod except here we have ducks and geese flying overhead instead of gulls.

Windfall Profits Tax

The presumptive Democratic presidentail nominee has suggested a windfall profits tax on the big oil companies. He further advised that the revenue from this tax would be used to pay for another stymulus payment individual taxpayers.

So, let's analyze how much proft the oil companies make. At the left are three representative big oil companies. Notice that only ExxonMobil has crept over the 10% net profit mark in the last ten years. Next, we can see the net profit for Microsoft during the last ten years. It looks like it has averaged about 30% during that period.

So, whom does the Democratic nominee suggest is making windfall profits?

Prediction: The price of oil will be below $60 within 18 months.

Celebrity Politics

This will be the first of many political rants as we enter the final run for the presidential election. The democratic candidate seems to be fine tuning the art of pandering that democrats are so well known for.

"I was merely trying to express my delight at Obama's commitment to his campaign in every aspect and his interest and his support (in) his surrogates and his staff and his fellows, and how wonderful and refreshing that is."

This quote was uttered by one of many celebrity airheads that seem to favor the liberal agenda, none other than Scarlett Johansson. Yes, indeed, an important aspect of a president is his commitment to his campaign and lackeys. Never before has a candidate been committed to his campaign. Brilliant logic. Never mind that policy stuff Scarlett. I guess you can't quite grasp things like the economy, energy, and security. With spokes people like this and their minions that will follow them, Rome here we come.

Bathroom Upgrade

I finally got around to installing the new shower door and spray nozzel. The old door has a rotted rubber gasket on the frame that was leaking and growing mold. I bought a framless door. Naturally, it wasn't easy. Some of the grout needed to be replaced and the anchors were a problem since the tile is place on a mud wall. So, it took me most of Saturday and Sunday morning.

And, no, there isn't a toilet in the shower. It's a reflection from the glass.