Go vote

[Max™]

I like how it hasn't even been 24 hours since the election and Mitch McConnell is already saying that congressional lawmakers should vote, "repeatedly if necessary" to repeal Obamacare, as part of a strategy to deny Obama a 2nd term in office. I know he's probably upset about not becoming the Senate Majority Leader but jesus, Mitch McConnell has got to be the biggest sniveling piece of shit in the whole country.

edit: pic related
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:q...emitch.jpg&t=1

Hmmm, seems related to the pic.

[Zilong]

Finance Watchdog to the rescue!

Sorry, but you aren't getting all of Iraq's oil reserves, unless you want to pay Europeans for it. Iraq publicly sold the rights to develop their oil fields in an auction. These also included a profit-sharing contract with the Iraqi government as a per-barrel tariff. The results arrived in Dec '09:

West Qurna Phase two superfield: Lukoil (Russia) leading a consortium
West Qurna Phase one superfield: Exxon Mobil with Royal Dutch Shell *the only US co.
Majnoon: RDShell and Petronas (malaysia)
Halfayah: CNPC china, Petronas, Total (france)
And several smaller fields going to Japex, SinoGas, AOA Gazprom, and a slew of others (Another US co, Occidental, landed a deal with one of the small fields. ie. less than 300,000bpd - barrels per day - output, in a consortium bid with a Korean company)

Although Chevron did try the old snuggle-up-to-a-Third-World-government game, they got nothing for it.

So, I guess that puts the final nail in the "We did it for the oil" coffin. It's worth mentioning the biggest winners in the oil auction, France, Russia, and China, were all vehemently opposed to Operation: Iraqi Freedom. A curious quirk of free market economics.

source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8407274.stm , http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BB18Q20091213
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the way, some interesting DOE figures. Trivia: Do you know who the largest oil exporters to America are?

Spoiler: show

No, it's not Iraq. They're like a really distant 8th. Or Kuwait - 13th. Or Iran (waaaaay down there). Or the UAE(way down there too). Or Saudi Arabia (5th 1.05 Million BPD). Or Venezuela(4th 1.1 million BPD).

Spoiler: show

#3: Nigeria 1.174 million bpd
#2: Mexico 1.289 million bpd
And....
#1: Canada 2.534 million bpd (that's more than every middle east partner combined by a longshot)
All figures from your own US dept of Energy

I saw very little "Reduce our dependency on Middle East Oil!" rhetoric this election, though I might have just missed it. Which is good, because Saudi Arabia hasn't been the top supplier since 1980.

As for the oil scarecrows, no we will not run out any time soon. The size of the Alberta Athabasca Oil Sands is an estimated 1.6 trillion barrels. Which, when you do the math, is equal to every other oil field in the world put together.

Watchdog, awaaaay!

*twinkle

Refining the oil from the sand deposit is gonna open a whole new can of worms with the environmentalist though.

[Max™]

That's ok.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1102131108.htm

Every Person Emits Two Tons of Carbon Dioxide a Year Through Eating, Spanish Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Nov. 2, 2010) — Every person emits the equivalent of approximately two tonnes of carbon dioxide a year from the time food is produced to when the human body excretes it, representing more than 20% of total yearly emissions. That is what a study by the Universidad de Almería says, confirming for the first time that human excrements contribute to water pollution, primarily with nitrogen and phosphorus.

Kill an environmentalist, save the environment!

[Zilong]

Finally, a scientifical reason for genocide!

[Cantih]

Unemployment and Social Security are largely spent on necessities, so the only safe way I can see cuts to those areas is by lowering the costs of necessities (and price fixing/altering is risky as fuck).
Similar for medicare/medicade, the only safe way to lower that is to drop the costs of medical services.

Defense is the best place for cuts, though as I don't know what amount of that area goes to paying troops (which as far as I'm concerned, is untouchable territory) I don't know how much can be done.

[Desoo]

#1: Canada 2.534 million bpd (that's more than every middle east partner combined by a longshot)

I knew that. On, the subject of "foreign oil dependency": It's retarded to use our own reserves when we can buy it off of people. Oil isn't going to get any cheaper, so if we buy it now, then use our own later when prices have increased, we make out in the long run. It always makes me laugh on the inside when people talk about reducing our "dependence" on foreign oil.

As for social security, the biggest problem with the system, is that the money you put in now, pays for the people collecting now. The system should work in such a way that when you retire, you get the money you put in back over the 12-20+ years you live after retiring. If someone were to work 20-65 and only ever made 20k/year, puts in the current FICA amount of 12.4%(half from them, half from employer) and get's a 3% return, it works out to about $986/month if you live until you're 85. (That is, assuming I did the compound interest maths right, which I'll admit I'm not 100% on). The current average monthly pay out is $1172. No, it's not quite as much, but it'd be a lot easier to manage, and we wouldn't need to worry about finding the money somewhere, it would already be there. It would basically be a mandatory gov't run savings account.

[Atreides]

wasn't there an article recently about how the Strategic Oil Reserves is MUCH smaller than originally thought, like catastrophically smaller?

also a documentary about Athabasca (well, the environmental impact of Athabasca) was nominated for an oscar. You can watch it online (only 30 mins long) here: http://www.babelgum.com/downstream

edit: oh okay, it's the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska. Was thought to contain 10.6 billion barrels, actually it has 90% less, just 896 million. OOPSY!
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/27/ala...le+Feedfetcher

[Desoo]

Regardless of how much/little oil we have available here, buying someone's now, using ours later, sounds like a good plan to me.

Watching it now.

[Desoo]

That was surprisingly un-sucktastic for a documentary. TBH though, I thought the cover-ups and the character assassinations to be more interesting than the environmental impacts. It definitely highlights the need to pay attention to what we're doing with oil shale/sands refining.

Was thought to contain 10.6 billion barrels, actually it has 90% less, just 896 million.

That is a wee bit of a miscalculation there.

[Plow]

Finance Watchdog to the rescue!

Sorry, but you aren't getting all of Iraq's oil reserves, unless you want to pay Europeans for it. Iraq publicly sold the rights to develop their oil fields in an auction. These also included a profit-sharing contract with the Iraqi government as a per-barrel tariff. The results arrived in Dec '09:

West Qurna Phase two superfield: Lukoil (Russia) leading a consortium
West Qurna Phase one superfield: Exxon Mobil with Royal Dutch Shell *the only US co.
Majnoon: RDShell and Petronas (malaysia)
Halfayah: CNPC china, Petronas, Total (france)
And several smaller fields going to Japex, SinoGas, AOA Gazprom, and a slew of others (Another US co, Occidental, landed a deal with one of the small fields. ie. less than 300,000bpd - barrels per day - output, in a consortium bid with a Korean company)

Although Chevron did try the old snuggle-up-to-a-Third-World-government game, they got nothing for it.

So, I guess that puts the final nail in the "We did it for the oil" coffin. It's worth mentioning the biggest winners in the oil auction, France, Russia, and China, were all vehemently opposed to Operation: Iraqi Freedom. A curious quirk of free market economics.

Actually brought this up in some argument here a couple years ago when they started the auctions, cuz people didn't believe me that we weren't getting jack shit of the oil there lol. The American profiteering in Iraq was all about construction and security.

[Rhinox]

Obama caving on tax cuts for the rich. Hope he enjoys being a one term president

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

[Anton]

From what I understand before George the 1st invaded Iraq was gearing up to become China's #1 supplier (and cut us out of the picture?) and the war made them look to africa (since now most of theirs comes from Angola, iirc)

Maybe? Saddam isn't the poster-boy for free markets, so it's possible. I'm not sure what the landscape was pre-Desert Storm. But arguably, there were less grassroots crazy people around then. The key point is still the war can't have been fought for oil (and certainly not ExxonMobil), because most of it is now owned elsewhere.

But think of it: How are the US and Iran dealing oil to each other, even when they're explicitly not? There was a CNN clip showing how oil tankers would declare they were going to the U.A.E., and then from there it's a hop-skip-and jump across the Persian gulf to the ports at Bandar-E-Abbas. The game never stops at country lines.

Refining the oil from the sand deposit is gonna open a whole new can of worms with the environmentalist though.

We are, it is. But here's how that argument breaks down:

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e4...efor/SHfck.jpg

American environmentalists can't say they like it, but at 2.5 million bpd, they can't not say they like it either. From what I hear, they're trying to clean up the process, several politicians have been invited over the last year to check out the Oil sands and like what they see. Stuff like reusing the same saltwater for the duration of the project. One step at a time, anyway. You can expect that can to be opened should the Liberals or (god help us all) the NDP take power.

I think one of the big reasons the US did go deep in Iraq's auction was the pricing scheme. Iraq charged top dollar for developing and running their oil fields, which is a pretty big risk considering the place, and how underdeveloped the fields currently are. The pricing disappointed many of the big competitors and, apparently, one of the auctions was a complete flop altogether. But where else today can you sink your teeth into a new potential Saudi Arabia-size field? Risk/reward, name of the game.

[Yabby]

Obama caving on tax cuts for the rich. Hope he enjoys being a one term president

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If he does this i agree.

[Max™]

I thought it was just to set up a new colonybase?

[SwampdonkeyPLD]

I can't help but wonder if the GOP will still have a majority in the Senate based on the simple fact that the Dem's have lots of seats to defend in '12. Considering what just happened they might go along with the GOP.

[Atreides]

did he actually cave on the tax cuts for the rich? I was under the impression the compromise was probably going to be in the form of appeasing republicans by extending them on the rich for 2-3 years, in exchange for letting them permanently expire after that point. It seems reasonable enough, although I've been pretty put off by the idea of democratic "compromise" being nothing but capitulation to republican demands.

edit: and yea it's too early to tell on the Senate for '12, but 23 seats (of which they'd need to keep 21) are a LOT for dems to defend. Guess it depends on the economy

[Xno Kappa]

Next two years is going to be one big ass lame duck session.

[Atreides]

McConnell's speech at the Heritage Foundation was so sickening. I mean Boehner is talking about being open to compromise, Obama is talking about compromise, and not even 2 days out from the election and McConnell is already reinforcing what he said about Republicans first priority being to make sure Obama is a 1 term president. How about the economy, shithead? I can't tell if the republican leadership really missed the message of this years elections (especially in the senate) or if McConnell is just butthurt about not becoming the new majority leader.

[Plow]

I can't help but wonder if the GOP will still have a majority in the Senate based on the simple fact that the Dem's have lots of seats to defend in '12. Considering what just happened they might go along with the GOP.

When absolutely nothing whatsoever happens for the next 2 years, and the economy still recovers thanks to the emergency action taken by the dems, and people realize the health care reform didn't end the world, the gop has nothing left to campaign on except abortion, hating gay people, and herpaderpahezamuzlim!

Sarah Palin and John McCain can tell you how that works out.

[Atreides]

Any word yet on if Nancy Pelosi will be staying in the House, or will that be something we don't know until January?

considering her approval rating is higher than the president's I highly doubt she'd leave. She's an easy target for negative ads (literally all of them lol) but by not responding to any of them she's been able to more or less rise above it

When absolutely nothing whatsoever happens for the next 2 years, and the economy still recovers thanks to the emergency action taken by the dems, and people realize the health care reform didn't end the world, the gop has nothing left to campaign on except abortion, hating gay people, and herpaderpahezamuzlim!

Sarah Palin and John McCain can tell you how that works out.

this. It feels like the Republican leadership is so out of touch with american conservatives it's not even funny any more. And the tea party pulls them so far to the right that they can't possibly hope to attract any moderates on social issues either. This whole "party of exclusion" thing is definitely going to be the death of them