A lot of things are going on in the political world besides the health care debate. And all of these things are building up in my head so I figured I should write about a couple of them to keep me sane. I find it helps to vent about stuff that just does not make sense. So enjoy these little tidbits.
According to the WSJ the Obama administration has issued a “preliminary commitment” to loan Petrobras 2 billion dollars. Petrobras is a Brazilian state owned company. And if you didn’t pick it up in the name, they are in the oil business. This initial 2 billion dollar loan (with possibly more on the way) would fund exploration of the huge offshore oil field discovery off the coast of Brazil. This exploration venture will probably make Brazil the largest exporter of oil in the world. Where to start. First we obviously do not have any money to lend so we are borrowing money to loan to someone else. But do not worry; it is only a few billion dollars. All I can say is that we better get an awesome return on this little investment. The bigger issue here is why this administration is funding offshore exploration of oil fields for Brazil, but refuses to do so here in the United States. Especially since our exploration would be done by private industry. All they would have to do is give permission. This does nothing to rid our dependence on foreign oil and is counter to the administrations stated energy policy. Are we seeing a change in policy or did they just not think anyone would notice a few billion dollars? Maybe they just like state owned companies…just kidding…kind of. I do wonder though where Al Gore and the rest of the environmentalists are on this one.
Another major piece of news was the shutdown of the flag@whitehouse.org email system. It appears that our fears came to fruition because emails were being sent out based on those collected; something the White House said would not happen. I think the real question should be the following: Should those responsible for this little program be prosecuted under the Privacy Act of 1974? You know that the ACLU would have at least tried to go after Bush if he had initiated a similar system for say… some of the false claims about the Iraq War. There would have been outrage. For the record, they have not stopped the program. They have simply shifted it from email to a website. A little smoke and mirrors for your Wednesday enjoyment.
And finally I saw that people are leaving AARP in droves here lately and almost all of them are leaving due to AARP’s friendly stance on the healthcare legislation. A report showed that 60,000 have cancelled their membership since July. Probably a drop in the bucket, but it could turn into a larger exodus. I do not pretend to know much about AARP and what they do, but I did see that there is a similar organization that is supposed to be much more conservative leaning. They are the American Seniors Association . It may be something you want to check out if you are a member of AARP.
Comments on this entry are closed.