Blatant Reality

This is probably the most interesting photo of the day from the RNC.

I’ll just let you decide the actual meaning of this.

Here is an article that lists several energy stocks that you may want to buy if McCain wins in November. As you could have guessed, they consist of Oil, Coal, and Nuclear Companies.

On a McCain win, oil service stocks like Cameron (CAM), Transocean (RIG), Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO) and Halliburton (HAL) will be huge, huge beneficiaries of more liberal domestic drilling rules. Nuclear stocks such as Cameco (CCJ) and nuclear ETF Market Vectors Nuclear Energy (NLR) could experience massive upside moves.

 

At some point, the stigma attached to the nuclear industry will fall away under the unrelenting pressure of high oil prices. A quick look at oil prices clearly shows that the commodity is undergoing a consolidation phase. These periods can last quite a long time, even a year or more.

 

We would be engaging in the worst form of wishful thinking however if we were to believe that the oil run was over. Moderating oil prices will continue to buoy stock prices, but that will only last until oil gets ready to run again. When it does, we could finally have the necessary impetus to get serious about nuclear energy as a viable solution to our domestic energy needs.

 

The idea of nuclear stocks and coal stocks being growth industries again will strike many investors as odd. But over the summer, we saw coal stocks acting like internet stocks of yesteryear, witnessing massive runs in once staid companies like James River Coal (JRCC) – up almost 150% over the last six months – and Alpha Natural Resources (ANR) – up almost the same amount.

This was very disheartening news to hear. It seems that the GOP is considering adding a ‘global warming is real’ section to our party’s platform.

The National Republican Party for the first time is expected to acknowledge global warming in its 2008 GOP Platform, according to a draft of the document.

 

“Increased atmospheric carbon has a warming effect on the earth,” the document said. “While the scope and long term consequences of this warming effect are the subject of ongoing research, we believe the United States should take measured and reasonable steps today.”

 

Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, is a strong proponent of tackling global warming and has co-authored legislation to address the issue.

 

In the GOP’s 2004 platform, the term “global warming” was completely absent.

Luckily, the party platform will have to be voted on at the RNC but even if this section doesn’t pass, McCain will still be the ‘maverick’ he is and push some crazy ‘cap and trade’ scheme on his own. Luckily, we conservatives have Palin to hinge all our hopes of sanity prevailing in the White House. All I can say is that  I sure hope she will be up for the task.

On a side note, the author of the article I quote above is none other than Jackie Kucinich, the daughter of Dennis Kucinich. Now I don’t know if she is as far out there (aka crazy) as her father but if she is, we might be able to right this storyoff as some wishful thinking.

Well I ended up watching the forum and the Olympics and I got to see Phelps make history (eight gold medals in one olympics is no small thing). While Phelps was impressive in the pool, McCain sure impressed me at the forum.
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To put this into perspective, after hearing rumors that McCain may choose a pro-choice running mate, I was to the point of not voting for any presidential candidate. This forum sure gave him some brownie points.
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The main thing he impressed me with is that he answered the questions head on and didn’t do the typical political doubletalk. Most questions he would answer in a single sentence or with a simple yes or no.
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These answers are what people really want. They want an answer that they can peg the candidates true beliefs on. With answers like these the talking heads really can’t spin their meaning. Obama keeps whining about people taking his comments out of context but when you never succinctly answer anything, you leave the media to decipher what you truly meant.
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Another thing that got McCain some more points in my book is that his short answers allowed Pastor Warren to ask more questions. I don’t know about you but I appreciate it when politicians keep their remarks short so more topics/issues can be covered. Sure Obama is a great speaker but last nights forum showed him more as a long winded person who dances around the question or plain gives convoluted answers.
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Anyways, those are just some of my thoughts. Feel free to leave comments below.

From the way things are shaping up, this whole Rick Warren Forum between Obama and McCain will be a little less than unbiased…

Anyways, its going to be on tonight at 8pm ET on CNN and the other news channels. I’m still debating on whether to watch this or some random Olympic sport.

This should be fairly obvious but it is worth stating that McCain is against subsidies for ethanol.

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain stopped by the Iowa State Fair on Friday, repeating his opposition to ethanol subsidies and vowing to open markets around the world to Midwest commodities.

 

McCain has long opposed subsidizing the production of ethanol and has never shied away from making his point known, even in farm country.

 

“My friends we will disagree on a specific issue and that’s healthy,” McCain said as he stood behind bales of straw at the fairgrounds. “We will disagree from time to time. I believe in renewable fuels, I don’t believe in ethanol subsidies, but I believe in renewable fuels.”

Here is more on the subject from his campaign website:

John McCain Believes Alcohol-Based Fuels Hold Great Promise As Both An Alternative To Gasoline And As A Means of Expanding Consumers’ Choices. Some choices such as ethanol are on the market right now. The second generation of alcohol-based fuels like cellulosic ethanol, which won’t compete with food crops, are showing great potential.

 

Today, Isolationist Tariffs And Wasteful Special Interest Subsidies Are Not Moving Us Toward An Energy Solution. We need to level the playing field and eliminate mandates, subsidies, tariffs and price supports that focus exclusively on corn-based ethanol and prevent the development of market-based solutions which would provide us with better options for our fuel needs.

Yesterday, MoveOn.org conducted over 200 different protests around the country to protest McCain receiving contribution from oil companies. I just happened to live by one of these protest so I headed over to check it out (and hope for something interesting to happen). This particular protest took place at the Shell Station on the corner of Skinker and Delmar (aka The Loop) which, I might want to add, is arguably the most liberal place in town.

And that fact got me thinking, what’s with Liberals protesting on their home turf anyways? Isn’t the point of a protest like this to get their ideas out to people who don’t already know/agree? Or do Liberals just like to protest in these areas so they can feel good about themselves when every other person who drives by honks their horn in support? Feel free to answer below.

Anyways, nothing really interesting happened but here are some picture I took of the event that I thought you might enjoy.

Here is one of the typical liberal cars that parked in the gas station parking lot as the owner of the car was out on the curb protesting. For those of you not from Missouri, the far left bumper sticker in the window is for Sam Paige, a democrat running for Lieutenant Governor and the middle is for Jay Nixon (no relation), a Democrat running for Governor.

This is the protesters lining the sidewalk in front of the Shell Station. They weren’t that active (aka no chants) and basically the protest was an hour and a half of them talking and commiserating about how bad McCain is and how wonderful Obama is.

Another protester who would yell at the cars driving by that McCain is a puppet to the oil companies.

Here is a sign that one of the protesters dropped on the ground. I never did check to see if it was picked up (I’m guessing it was but wouldn’t that be ironic)

And then we have the parents who dragged their children out to this event.

Mom on far left with her two kids.

Now for the group shot which was taken just as they were finishing. The group never did look like it ever reached the 49 people that had pledged to show up.

If you want to see the flier that they were handing out it can here see here(front) and here(back).

As you can see, the protest was pretty boring as I hinted at before because nothing really happen. Some people honked their support, some people flicked them off, and some people just plain ignored them. However, there were no verbal fights that you sometimes see at these kinds protests. Once again, I blame the lack of “action” on the fact that they held this protest in friendly territory.

Why didn’t I stir up some trouble? Well first off, I didn’t want and physical harm to come to my camera if things got ugly and secondly, I just don’t like picking fights. They left me along so I left them alone.

In all honesty, the main reason I didn’t mess with them is because they were attacking McCain on his energy policy and, the fact is, McCain has yet to prove to me he actually knows what he is talking about on this topic. What could I even attack them on since I don’t even believe McCain is going to do right by us with regards to energy? Is he going to be better than Barack, most likely, but that really isn’t saying much.

Anyways, if anyone else went to one of these things and they saw a little more action, please leave a link below.

It’s about time that McCain gave me something to look forward if he wins the presidency.

Sen. John McCain called Wednesday for the construction of 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030 and pledged $2 billion a year in federal funds “to make clean coal a reality,” measures designed to reduce dependence on foreign oil.

 

(…)

 

“Every year, these reactors alone spare the atmosphere from the equivalent of nearly all auto emissions in America. Yet for all these benefits, we have not broken ground on a single nuclear plant in over thirty years,” he said. “And our manufacturing base to even construct these plants is almost gone.”

 

Even so, he said he would set the country on a course to build 45 new ones by 2030, with a longer-term goal of adding another 55 in the future.

 

“We will need to recover all the knowledge and skills that have been lost over three stagnant decades in a highly technical field,” he conceded.

Powerline Blog has more on this here.

Here is McCain’s latest global warming ad.

Sometimes I wonder if Gore endorsed the wrong person.

Hat tip New York Times.

In a recent poll conducted by CNN, Nader received 6%!

Ralph Nader’s campaign is trying to capitalize on his showing in a new national poll to argue that he might be on the stage for presidential debates and to seek more money needed to get on ballots.

 

In the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted June 4-5, Democrat Barack Obama had 47 percent, Republican John McCain had 43 percent, and Nader had 6 percent — “with virtually no mainstream national press coverage,” the consumer activist’s campaign told supporters today. (Without Nader in the race, Obama leads 49 percent to 46 percent.)

 

The 6 percent is an important threshold, Nader’s camp notes, because most debate organizers require at least 5 percent to invite a candidate.

Why is this such great news? Well it means that Nader could possibly be invited to several presidential debates which would boost his popularity even more! More votes for Nader would most likely mean less votes for Obama!

Another added benefit would be that we get a Ron Paul-esque candidate in the debates to spout out crazy ideas while the other two candidates completely ignore him. I might actually watch the debates if he is in them.