Friedman nails McCain on alternative energy hypocrisy
Since he's trying to exploit the anger Americans are feeling at the pump by basing his entire domestic platform on an "all of the above" energy policy, don't you think John McCain would be wise to actually show up and vote on crucial renewable energy legislation? Well, according to Tom Friedman, John McCain is a big fat hypocrite after missing eight important Senate votes.
NYT:
John McCain recently tried to underscore his seriousness about pushing through a new energy policy, with a strong focus on more drilling for oil, by telling a motorcycle convention that Congress needed to come back from vacation immediately and do something about America’s energy crisis. “Tell them to come back and get to work!” McCain bellowed.
Sorry, but I can’t let that one go by. McCain knows why.
It was only five days earlier, on July 30, that the Senate was voting for the eighth time in the past year on a broad, vitally important bill — S. 3335 — that would have extended the investment tax credits for installing solar energy and the production tax credits for building wind turbines and other energy-efficiency systems.
Both the wind and solar industries depend on these credits — which expire in December — to scale their businesses and become competitive with coal, oil and natural gas. Unlike offshore drilling, these credits could have an immediate impact on America’s energy profile.
Senator McCain did not show up for the crucial vote on July 30, and the renewable energy bill was defeated for the eighth time. In fact, John McCain has a perfect record on this renewable energy legislation. He has missed all eight votes over the last year — which effectively counts as a no vote each time. Once, he was even in the Senate and wouldn’t leave his office to vote.
This is precisely the reason we are so addicted to fossil fuels. Renewable energy will never become financially competitive with oil and gas until the feds invest in it and incentivize its progression. I hope every Obama energy ad from now til November notes that while he may be talking a good game about supporting alternative energy, Senator McCain 0-for-8 when it really counted.
Friedman has much to make up for. He banged the drums of war with Iraq with the best of them. I have more credibility than he and well as all the others who didn't listen to the likes of him. He can crawl back down the rat hole he came out of.
Unfortunately, Obama apparently didn't vote for consideration to proceed with that bill either. http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm...
Is this the same Thomas Friedman who used to be an A-Hole?
He's only "green" because he lost all credibility on foreign affairs.
Thanks but no thanks Thom. Go F yourself.
"Nine-Eleven was the peak of that bubble"
Not only is he an offensive jackass he's the most inept writer (and speaker, I see here) around.
How the hell does a bubble have a "peak"?
I'm glad this fool is calling McCain on some of his nonsense but, eh. A day late and a dollar short, as always, spewing mixed metaphor inanity all the way.
How many times do we have to watch this slug in a turtleneck spew his sophomoric drivel about the invasion of Iraq being about showing the Caliphate-wannabees that America is willing to fight to defend its freedoms?
Never let facts interfere with a nice sounding argument. Just go on hoping that your audience doesn't notice that there are Americans being killed in Iraq while their Constitutional rights are being errased in the United States. That would really rain on the parade.
2nd time, I've heard Tom refer to a "bubble" as having a "peak". His inept use of mixed metaphors hardly justifies the Iraq war.
Bill E. @4
How the hell does a bubble have a “peak”?
Faith-based geometry.
How else would you explain an A-hole who would write a book about how all the little brown people in the world should just suck it up and accept the new economic world order, and entitle it The World is Flat.
Isn't this the wrong video? He's talking about Iraq not McCain. And he's spouting nonsense as usual.
"Knocking on doors from Basra to Baghdad"? Friedman may be OK as an economist, but he's lousy in international affairs. Al Qaida was NOT in Iraq prior to our invasion. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Furthermore, 'we've' been 'over there' for decades - we or our European look-alikes. Virtually every middle east nation has been a European colony. That's where the roots of fundamental extremism lie. Friedman tends to forget the bases we had in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Turkey. After all, it's not as though we weren't already 'over there'.
0 for 8 = No for 8
americans want cheap gas they would drill in thier parks and back yards if they thought they could get cheap gas.
they will pay a fortune for the war machine and for medical care but what they really want is cheap gas
promise them cheap gas and tax cuts you got their votes
politicans are a reflection their voters
wecome to america where we borrow from communists, socialists and kings to support our way of life and then brag about how great we are and look for a communist, socialist and a terrorist each night under our beds
the have mores control the american mind
visit peoria illinois then you will understand the mentality of america
as nixon stated if it will play in peoria it will play anywhere in america
the end result of american capitalism: bye bye middle class nice knowing ya
the very foundation of capitalism is to eliminate the middle class to enrich the have mores wealth
Lemme see something....
we have a bad situation where we've built an entire global civilization and trade network (the two are never inseparable,) built on petroleum. Much of the technology and other lovely facets of this global network such as computers and that jet travel that has both good and bad aspects, is dependent on said petroleum. Much of the huge population of today's world is also dependent on the trade network underlaid by this petroleum, especially in the First World, but to an extremely large degree, the Third World as well. The problem is that this petroleum is produced from stuff that's been dead for millions of years, which will take millions of years to replenish.
The bigger problem then becomes that society does not have millions of years to adjust to a new economy, it only has 100 or at best, 300 years before the crunch hits.
With a trade network and civilization dependent on said millions of years to replenish source that only has 100-300 years to adjust to something entirely new.
The alternative energies proposed all fall short of meeting the needs not only of the heavily technologically dependent First World, but also of the huge populations of the Third World that have been dependent on the trade network established by oil. Nuclear energy is hard to clean up after use of, and requires oodles of money that the Third World doesn't have. Wind and Solar are rather useless to use to ship goods across the ocean to places like New Zealand and Australia and to Great Britain and Iceland. Hydrogen....we already know how well that worked thanks to the Hindenburg disaster.
Uh, oh...
what now?
What do we do?
Friedman can kiss my rosey pink arse. Warmonger.
WRONG VIDEO! HELLO!
Greg Thomsen @ 9:
Groups like Al Qaeda, which incidentally, our overreaction to 9/11 turned from a Muslim version of the cult that Sarin gassed the Tokyo Subways into an imaginary global enemy do very badly in authoritarian dictatorships, they do best in regimes that encourage freedom like the Western regimes.
Al Qaeda, incidentally, was a split of a split of a split of a split of radical Muslims from the era of the 1980s. We turned the Judean Popular Front into the Communist Party USSR instead of a group against the People's Front of Judea or the Judean People's Front or the Front for the People of Judea.
listen to friedman again and shame on you, i don't care what the idiot says anymore..
OT. I apologize. This is important. I guess Bush's escape paradise haven is no longer there.
__________________________________________________________________
ASUNCION (AFP) - An ex-bishop who ended 61 years of one-party conservative rule in Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, was sworn in Friday as his nation's president, further swelling the ranks of leftwing leaders in South America.
Ideologically aligned leaders, including Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Argentina's Cristina Kirchner, Chile's Michelle Bachelet, Bolivia's Evo Morales and Ecuador's Rafael Correa attended the ceremony in Asuncion.
_________________________________________________________________
What Bush has done up to this point, is to restore the balance of power. With Russians and the world pissed at us at this point in time, we won't be committing the stupidities we got away with in the last 8 years. We can't fuck with Latin America either. We are so broke, we can even pay attention! We want tell other countries what to do. It won't be easy anymore. Now that the Cold War has been reignited, I feel better, because countries know what the true results are if they abuse power.
Of course, there is always Bush who really doesn't give a shit about a "nucular " conflagration.
just another sociopath who cheers the U.S. as a puppet state of israel.
Now you're praising Friedman?
Chuck U @8
bobswire @14
The video is just extra. Friedman nails McCain in the NYT piece.
McShame: The gift that keeps on giving.
The video has nothing to do with McCain. What's up?
8 Chuck U Says: Isn’t this the wrong video? He’s talking about Iraq not McCain. And he’s spouting nonsense as usual.
=======================
No, it's just one of our favourites, so we remember who Friedman really is: an opportunist that changes course when expedient.
He's right, but Friedman can suck Rove's pig bawls.
robbie @ 19:
Friedman made a very good pertinent point. His readers should see what he has to say about this. The point is valid and telling. Just because it is Friedman who wrote it we should not know about it?
I think you have the wrong video posted. You might want to check it.
Campy @ 2:
That's what I was wondering.
How many of these 8 energy bills did Obama vote on?
If he voted, how did he vote?
the petro industry is using the shock doctrine to get whatever they want
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kieyjfZDUIc
watch that youtube because knowledge is innoculation, they use a catastrophe and then they can move us around like sheep
the correct answer to drilling in the states is as follows;
"petry industry need to exploit the licenses they already have, once they use those they MIGHT be allowed to obtain new licenses, until then they need to stop trying to destroy this country's natural resources
Obama '08, McCain 0-8!
me to me @ 28:
Naomi Klein simply hit on an old rule of politics, now that I've finally figured out what the Shock Doctrine is...
when in need of a cheap trick to unify people, attacking another nation or inventing a war is a time-honored trick. The Shock Doctrine is just its current form.
Bill E Pilgrim @ 4:
Bobswire @17
WRONG VIDEO! HELLO!
DIFFERENT SHIT, SAME ASSHOLE! HELLO!
fuck Tom Friedman and fuck you, C&L
oh for god's sake - "the peak of that bubble" what a piece of shit. Peak of a bubble? The bubble will level the balance of power? What a shitsack of mismatched metaphors ... a horrid man and an AWFUL writer. FUCK YOU FRIEDMAN
Pericles @ 32:
Looking over this thread I was beginning to think it was just me who noticed that the video and the transcript didn't match.
Wrong video on the post C&L!
So going door to door in another country to intimidate a society with violence and the threat of violence to achieve political ends. There's a name for that.. what is it now... it's on the tip of my tongue. Anywa... that's OK.
General_R @30
"Naomi Klein simply hit on an old rule of politics, now that I’ve finally figured out what the Shock Doctrine is…
when in need of a cheap trick to unify people, attacking another nation or inventing a war is a time-honored trick. The Shock Doctrine is just its current form."
Yeah, the principle is not new, but actually her book 'The Shock Doctrine and the Rise of Disaster Capitalism' goes further than that. It's not just about the old trick of uniting a country by attacking another, OR the old trick of using fear to trump peoples' ability to think logically, and flock to messianic demagogs. It also talks about the shock, and loss of rational politics that follows natural disasters, wars, and economic collapses. And (most importantly) it documents how the Friedman/Straussian gang of global free market capitalists have used this psychological phenomenon to push global free market economics. Or just to exploit fear and hopelessness as a way of pushing through political reforms that you couldn't push through when people were thinking rationally. If you can't get off shore drilling when gas is $2 a gallon, just put the proposed bills in cold storage until there is some kind of an energy SHOCK, and then bring them out again.
So, Naomi points out that these global free market capitalists managed to push global free markets on virtually all of the old south American dictatorships, once the dictatorships had collapsed, and the people were wandering around, dazed and confused, not having been responsible for their own government before. Ditto for when the Soviet Union collapsed. Jump in there with your pre-packaged ideas and say "Adopt global free trade, and you can be as rich as people in America! F-CK YEAH!" And they'd go for it.
Well, the most ironic thing about the economic and political collapse that's happening to the U.S. is that, the U.S. was ALREADY shoved over to the right as far as it could go in terms of global free market capitalism. For the last 30 years, American right wingers have been using the Shock Doctrine to force global free market capitalism on left wing countries. But what happens when you shock a country that ALREADY practices global free market capitalism? You can either push it farther to the right, although there's not much room LEFT in that direction, or...
This clip is supposed to be about alternative energy and it's just about intimidating Iraqi's. It's also scarily belligerent and NeoCon.
People like Freidman, Turley, John Dean and Howard Dean need to be out front more often. Too often on shows we have Lefties who are soft, and allow themselves to be out-talked.
Friedman is a fiend and a detriment to society. His whackjob theories about Iraq just get more and more bizarre each time he desperately tries to justify his failure as a "journalist." His bubble has peaked if you ask me.
friedman was an idiot long before he 'discovered his new callin'
Once an idiot always an idiot.
I'd still be interested in hearing what he has to say about McCain though...
I agree with comment #8 above. I think this is the wrong video.
"Isn’t this the wrong video? He’s talking about Iraq not McCain. And he’s spouting nonsense as usual."
Come on 'SilentPat'...Its pretty easy to check this but it sure looks like Senator "Hope and Change"missed the vote too.
Beside Tom Freidman "nailing" anybody is hardly newsworthy.
Friedman is a nut.
Can't believe you, yet again, give his hindsight bullsh!t space here.
Terrorist Bubble? Bubble in the brain, I think.
This was a very well timed information.. I work for a solar energy system in Oregon and today we had to lay off 15 workers - mostly due to the failure of congress to pass this bill. Almost all Republican voted no to even allowing the bill to be voted on in the Senate....
I will say that Gordon Smiith our Republcan senator did vote yes, twice... and he is to be commended. But we have to in November send them all home to count theri money and elect a 60+ majority in the Senate, or they will block every move by Obama.... Don't let that happen...
Let me get this straight: He talks the talk to score political points, but then does absolutely nothing that doesn't benefit big bizz. Sounds like a true republican to me.
I can just hear him talking to his CEO buddies in the oil industry. "You know I am going to have to say some unkind things about you guys to appease the morons until November, but don't worry, you folks know I'm just kidding."
0gmsoftransfat @ 40:
Spot on.
His whole shtick is like a tertiary xerox of Ayn Rand or some second-rate shrink-wrapped relic of 90s consultant-culture. He's like the business section of a bookstore manifested as man; ugly ideas, thousand-hour work weeks, fiscal tightrope-walking sans safety nets, the crushing homogenization of cities across the world... ugh to it all.
I'd very much like to see this guy sit down with Bill Moyers...
When all the fighting is over in November you must remember one thing: Obama has us (liberals) already. We have no choice, so he must appeal to moderates and conservatives to get as many votes as he can. He doesn't have to cater to us because he has us.
When you analyze his moves understand that they are directed towards swing voters. He must not scare them if he's going to get elected.
JLW
Obama missed the vote too....probably because the head count had it going down by at least
8 votes. What Friedman says that is more correct, is that McCain has missed all the votes on
the various attempts to pass the extensions, whereas Obama has voted, I believe, YES on all of them except this last one.
right on Friedman!!
I hear what yer sayin'
NUKE THE CUBE!!
i like the way friedman talks.....like he knows something....what a fool
Pericles @ 32:
Bobswire @17
WRONG VIDEO! HELLO!
DIFFERENT SHIT, SAME ASSHOLE! HELLO!
Looking over this thread I was beginning to think it was just me who noticed that the video and the transcript didn’t match.
Wrong video on the post C&L!
No, this is mr. '6 months' infamouse 'suck on this' video
he wrote the following dissing of grampy here....
John McCain recently tried to underscore his seriousness about pushing through a new energy policy, with a strong focus on more drilling for oil, by telling a motorcycle convention that Congress needed to come back from vacation immediately and do something about America’s energy crisis. “Tell them to come back and get to work!” McCain bellowed.
Sorry, but I can’t let that one go by. McCain knows why.
It was only five days earlier, on July 30, that the Senate was voting for the eighth time in the past year on a broad, vitally important bill — S. 3335 — that would have extended the investment tax credits for installing solar energy and the production tax credits for building wind turbines and other energy-efficiency systems.
Both the wind and solar industries depend on these credits — which expire in December — to scale their businesses and become competitive with coal, oil and natural gas. Unlike offshore drilling, these credits could have an immediate impact on America’s energy profile.
Senator McCain did not show up for the crucial vote on July 30, and the renewable energy bill was defeated for the eighth time. In fact, John McCain has a perfect record on this renewable energy legislation. He has missed all eight votes over the last year — which effectively counts as a no vote each time. Once, he was even in the Senate and wouldn’t leave his office to vote
friedman is a putz anyway
myshadow @ 53:
He has missed all eight votes over the last year — which effectively counts as a no vote each time. Once, he was even in the Senate and wouldn’t leave his office to vote
The last part is the real gem. He couldn't even be bothered to tear himself away from his (presumed) meeting with oil lobbyists long enough to waddle 30 feet down the hall and vote for an alternative energy bill. That's taking the idea of "saving energy" a little too far, I think.
The only member of Congress who's done ANYTHING to conserve energy this year was Pelosi, when she closed down the offshore drilling debate, shut down C-SPAN, and turned the lights off in The House of Representatives, leaving those Republican dingleberries to stumble around in the dark, and heat the place with their fiery rhetoric. Ironically, she probably also saved the taxpayers a lot of money, since Congress can only waste it when they're in session.
Merkin @ 51:
I'd rather eat the triangle. But lets leave the Sunnis out of this.
NEITHER McCAIN OR OBAMA ARE GOING TO DO ANYTHING OF VALUE TO FURTHER THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE ON PLANET EARTH IN A FAVORABLE FASHION. HISTORY WILL PROVE ME OUT.....THEY ARE BOTH OF THE CORPORATOCRACY AND THEIR LANGUAGE SHOULD DISGUST ANYONE WHO REALLY KNOWS WHAT IS GOING ON.
IT'S ALL A BUNCH OF CRAP. THERE IS NO "OTHER SIDE OF THE ISLE"....THE CONSTITUTION HAS BEEN DESTROYED AND BOTH PARTIES ARE RESPONSIBLE.
THE LIFE OF THE REBUBLIC SHOULD TRUMP EVERY SINGLE ISSUE BEFORE CONGRESS, .... THE PRESIDENTS OFFICE SHOULD BE IMPEACHED FOR TREASON AND HIGH CRIMES AGAINST THE REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
THE WHOLE OF CONGRESS IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALLOWING THESE CRIMES TO GO UNCHECKED.
this guy is a lunatic.
Huh? Rose was asking about "the war" in Iraq, right? I turned off the video as soon as Friedman started talking about 9/11, after 30 seconds of incoherent throat clearing. Conflating Iraq and 9/11 is simply regurgitating the right-wing frame. How many times do we have to counter the neocon lie that Iraq has anything to do with 9/11 (other than as a false excuse to invade)? Not only is Friedman dead wrong, he's pompous, too. At least most of the neocons aren't so pompous.
Whereas this may very well be the wrong video, I'm thankful for it. I've often read about and around the infamous "suck on this" meme, but had never actually seen what it was referencing. Now I have and wow, the descriptions do not even come close to the reality... Friedman IS the consummate douche.
Media Concepts @ 58:
Oh the argument of "We invaded Iraq because Saddam was involved in 9/11" is SOOOO 2002. Not even the knuckle-draggers are wearing that anymore. The reason for invading Iraq is an evolving life form, and every year it's different. 2002 it was because Saddam caused 9/11. 2003 it was bacause Saddam had nukes. 2004 it was because he had other WMDs that we just haven't found yet. 2005 it was to bring democracy to the middle east. 2006 it was because Saddam was a bastard. 2007 it was because Al Qaida is there. 2008 it was because Al Qaida left, but if we didn't stay they'd come back. Now McCain is offering a 3 billion dollar prize to the inventor that can come up with the best excuse for us to have invaded Iraq, provided it's nothing to do with OIL.
Oh, and technically speaking, Tom Friedman is classified as a NEOLIBERAL, not a NEOCONSERVATIVE.
Here is a Wiki definition of neoliberalism, but it's kind of long, and in the practical sense there is only one minor difference between neoconservatives and neoliberals. When you vomit as a result of hearing a neoLIBERAL speak, you don't see any blood or entrails in your puke. Otherwise, their affect is pretty much the same.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberal
Well, according to Tom Friedman, John McCain is a big fat hypocrite after missing eight important Senate votes.
As usual, Friedman's WRONG. Bombin' Johnnie's not a "big, fat" anything. He a shrivelled, wizened, withered, lying, chickenshit LITTLE (only 5'7") hypocrite.
helenahandbasket @ 6:
A fake DD breast with its nipple--that Freakman will never squeeze?
Hello, any body there ?
Wrong video.
Was your site hacked ?
Which war is over ? WWII, Vietnam ? Last time I checked the Iraq war was still going and going just like that energy bunny...
Who gives a flock what Friedman thinks.
He speaks like an evangelical preacher
Okay Mr. Friedman, you of the grand unifying theory of bubbles, suck on this idea: The "Emerging Republican Majority" (credit: Kevin Phillips) emerged, gained power and control of ideas in the U.S. (credit: Reagan), then decided power could easily be converted to absolute power (credit: Machiavelli, MSM, SCOTUS, Rove) which inevivitably corrupts absolutely (credit: Lord Acton, re-proven in our time by Dick Cheney, Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff et. al.). So now we have seen all of the following Conservative theories put into practice: the domino theories of Vietnam and Iraq, supply side economics, global warming is merely a hoax to be ignored, deficits don't matter, government regulation should be eliminated with everything privatized, global markets unfettered by regulation produces prosperity for the U.S., and just take care of the upper class and their prosperity will trickle down to benefit all of society. Conservatism got its way in all these areas and the results are manifest: a festering bubble of failure. There's your real and ultimate bubble, Tom Friedman, that you helped to pump up. Good start with your analysis of energy policy, now keep going. There's a lot more of this pus-filled bubble that needs bursting. How apropos that YOU be the one to PRICK it.
Fuck Friedman. He is a populist.
The GOPers and DINO corporatists are so lost in the ways prostitution to big energy, that they are missing the point that they are pissing away absolutely heroic amounts to the Europeans, Japanese etc, by simple default. We will fail to participate in multi-trillion $ industries because othe greed of so very few and the mindless anti-green ideologies that are deeply based in sociopathic greed.
These assholes would fuck over the entire world, including their own future descendants, in order to party-on today. This is one of the uglier faces of evil.
that friedman video should be required viewing for people 500 years from now trying to explain why America went crazy in the early 21st century.
Also, not just "Suck.On.This.", but the sentence "we hit Iraq because we could" sends shivers down my spine.
And here's the icing on the cake:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/08/15/mccain-energy-aspen/
More McCain hypocrisy.
I've heard it before:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axrgFGZYFzE
Let's have some fun now:
The McCain-Nixon-Bush Tango
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyvJVy_7LYU
Comments are closed on this entry