DrumBeat: July 21, 2007
Posted by Leanan on July 21, 2007 - 9:11am
Topic: Miscellaneous
This week, the National Petroleum Council (NPC) finally coughed up a report that we've been awaiting for two years, ever since U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman asked them to determine "what the future holds for global oil and gas supply" and whether "incremental supplies can be brought on-line, on-time and at a reasonable price that does not jeopardize economic growth."Translation: the Energy Secretary was wise to peak oil, and asked the oil industry to tell him where we really stand. After all, if it goes down on his watch, he's going to have one of the worst jobs on earth.
If he has any idea at all what the truth about global oil supply really is at this point, then I think he'll be as disappointed in the result as the rest of us "walking worried" are.
Developed world 'having second thoughts' about globalisation
The seemingly unstoppable rise of China and India as challengers to the domination of the United States and Europe has started a debate on whether globalisation has gone too far.In particular, the current economic superpowers are worried about control of oil and other resources being sapped by China's demand.
Accidents dim hopes for green nuclear option
The recent earthquake in Japan and accidents at two German power plants raise questions on the safety of nuclear energy as a cleaner alternative.
Uranium Mining in Niger at Risk
In April, the Tuaregs attacked one of Areva’s uranium mines. Dominique Pin, head of Areva’s uranium mining in Niger, recently admitted, “The attack caused us to stop all our operations for almost a month.” Pin was recently forced to rebut claims that Areva had been financing the Tuareg ‘Movement of Niger People for Justice’ (MNJ). The Areva executive expressed concerns about ‘security and stability in Niger.’
Peak Oil Passnotes: Peak Oil Zombie Attack Redux
It is rare in this column that we take a look back at our previous work. But the client response to last week’s column ‘Zombie Attack’ was so brilliant we cannot help ourselves. For any new readers, we talked about the fact - and we use the word ‘fact’ as such - that many people who believe in ‘peak oil’ are a bit weird.In fact, many of the people who believe in ‘peak oil’ are so weird they put off anyone else who looks at the subject. Because the subject, at first glance, seems so amazingly simple, it attracts simple views. That is we are about to embark, or already have embarked upon a precipitous decline in the production of oil. When you consider how important oil is to the global economy, notably transport, the effects are unknown and worrisome.
John Michael Greer: Culture death
A few weeks ago, one of the readers of The Archdruid Report posted a comment asking whether I thought the white race would survive the decline and fall of industrial civilization.
New US Natural Gas Projects Seen Boosting Supply, Easing Prices
New supplies of natural gas scheduled to hit the U.S. market over the next several months are expected to beef up already healthy inventories and could result in lower natural gas prices.U.S. gas stocks are at near-record levels after a warm early winter and a cool early summer have kept gas demand for heating and cooling moderate. New gas supply from the Independence Hub in the deep waters of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, and from the Rockies Express Pipeline out West could put downward pressure on gas prices, some analysts predict.
Analysis: Oil from shale could meet need
Technology to draw oil from rock in Rocky Mountain states and other unconventional sources is getting another look from companies and the government as the demand for energy increases and supply tightens, especially in the United States.
Russia to Expand Asian Oil Link after 2015
Russia is on track to open the first 600,000 barrels per day phase of its Asian pipeline next year, but it is unlikely to expand to the full 1.6 million barrels per day capacity before 2015-2017, an official said on Thursday.
ConocoPhillips Chief Urges Cooperation on Energy Policies
The sometimes adversarial relationship between the U.S. government and oil industry should become more collaborative to hammer out an energy policy, the head of Houston-based ConocoPhillips told business leaders Thursday.
President of Shell Oil urges more oil drilling
The United States is living on the "knife's edge of a (energy) shortage," but the country has plenty of energy sources for the future if Congress and other policymakers open more areas to oil drilling and provide incentives for developing other forms of energy.
Shell ordered to suspend Arctic drilling
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A federal appeals court has ordered Shell Oil to stop its exploratory drilling program off the north coast of Alaska at least until a hearing in August.The order, issued Thursday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, comes after the federal Minerals Management Service in February approved Shell's offshore exploration plan for the Beaufort Sea.
"Vessels currently located in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas shall cease all operations performed in furtherance of that program, but need not depart the area," the order said.
Oil: OPEC in Charge, $90 on the Way?
With supply flagging, prices could reach exorbitant levels by fall, but experts say the world economy should be able to handle it.
On Webdiary we've gone round the the Peak Oil loop more than a few times over the last few years (eg here). A new point of interest has arisen over this week: for the first time in the last few years the oil futures price has come out of its persistent state of contango as it rose back over USD75.What does this mean? Well, the short answer is, for the first time in a long while, oil futures dealers are not on balance convinced that the next move in the oil price is necessarily up.
A fire which broke out in berths undergoing maintenance at Saudi Aramco's Ras Tanura facility last Thursday has led to the closure of the plant's North Terminal, according to the Dow Jones newswires. Aramco has said operations are continuing from alternative berths and has also stressed that naphtha loading is ongoing.
Lebanese killed in Nigeria's oil region
Gunmen killed a Lebanese businessman in his home early Friday in oil-rich southern Nigeria, police said, while attackers tried to ambush a truck carrying several foreign workers in what appeared to be a kidnapping attempt later in the day.
Chavez inaugurates refinery in Nicaragua
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday inaugurated a 150,000-barrel-a-day refinery the nation is building in Nicaragua as part of the leftist leader's oil-funded battle against U.S. influence in the region.
Japan's nuclear plans affected by quake
Japan's nuclear power industry is among the world's most ambitious. Spurred by fears of global warming, planners envision a rapid expansion of plants, capacity and cutting-edge technologies.But a series of radioactive leaks at the world's largest atomic plant following a killer earthquake in northwestern Japan this week has given the industry a public relations headache that will be difficult to cure.
Lots of energy, shortage of policy
The U.S. National Petroleum Council's new report on global energy markets, believed to be one of the most extensive studies of its kind, received mixed reviews this week from greens and others whose policy ideas depend on an ever-present looming catastrophe. Especially put out by the 470-page report, titled Facing the Hard Truths About Energy, were the peak-oil theorists, who believe disaster is imminent as the world supply of conventional oil is set to peak, triggering a catastrophic decline.
Motorists getting greyer, greener, thriftier: Nissan's Ghosn
Motorists are getting older, thriftier and more concerned about the planet, sending automakers back to the drawing board to develop cars to meet their needs, industry guru Carlos Ghosn said Friday.
Booming car industry fuels climate crisis
The world’s auto manufacturers produced a record 67 million vehicles in 2006, putting more cars on the road than ever before. While global production grew 4 per cent last year, China increased its production by nearly 30 per cent, overtaking Germany to become the third largest producer.
The Portland Streetcar, long considered a downtown transit and redevelopment tool, could reach disparate parts of the city under a vision described on Friday by City Commissioner Sam Adams in a speech to the Portland City Club. The commissioner oversees the Portland Office of Transportation, which is developing a 30-year rail transit plan for the city, with implications for the metro area."What would Portland look like if we implemented solutions to global warming and peak oil?" Adams said. "It would look a lot like Portland circa 1920, a time when the main means of motion were your feet, streetcars and bikes."
Drivers, give cyclists a break
Cyclists should not ever feel afraid to go out on the road, nor should they come across as a threat or a nuisance to drivers. We are willing to share the road with cars, so why are cars so unwilling to share the road with us? I can't help but wonder what these angry, anti-bike drivers will do when peak oil hits and they'll be forced to consider other modes of transportation.
Gotta love Kunstler's Eyesore of the Month. Believe it or not, it's "the world's first sustainable parking garage."
Again, Alan Drake is asking the key question, "How did we move people and stuff around before we really entered the oil age?"
From up top:
Answer: we didn't move them very far.
Nor, relatively speaking, did we move very many of them. Choosing 1920 as an arbitrary pre-oil date, the US population was only 106M and 49% lived in rural areas (Census data here). We'll be at triple that total in a few more years, and our current split is roughly 25/50/25 urban/suburban/rural.
Instead of looking at just percentages, look at actual population numbers. In 1900, total population was 76.2 million, of which 46 million were rural. In 1950, population was 151.3 of which 61.2 were rural. By 1990, the total was 248.7, while rural was 61.7 million. And that last number reflects a change in the definition of "rural", starting in 1950, which moved lots of folks out of "rural" areas and into "cities" (i.e., expanded metro areas). There's now about 300 million in the U.S. and there's still a large (and growing) number of people living in rural areas.
The conclusion is that those of us that want to move back to the land are going to find out that there's already lots of people living there who will compete for what ever resources are available. As a result, moving back to the "country" isn't likely to be a realistic survival alternative for most city folks, once the S&*t hits the fan.
E. Swanson
Depends on what you mean by 'we' and 'far.' Grain was shipped halfway across the planet in the 1880s - not only from Australia, but also from California and Oregon to Britain. ( http://www.jstor.org/jstor/gifcvtdir/di000128/0161391x/di952316/95p00787... )
And lots of interesting reading in an article at http://www.helsinki.fi/iehc2006/papers2/Singleton.pdf Even more interesting to understand how such shipping worked, for those with a nautical bent is http://www.nps.gov/history/maritime/nhl/falls.htm - with the added tidbit 'In 1907 Falls of Clyde was once again modified when she was converted into a sailing oil tanker.' Fascinating reading of how oil was handled at the birth of the oil age - and yes, biodiesel is very easily imaginable in this configuration.
This is one reason cities like London or New York were so successful in expanding compared to cities like Berlin or Paris - ships docked in the city, and grain was moved a very short distance before being used.
Though localization remains a very valid goal, looking at how the world functioned before WWI swept away an integrated world economy which we have only recently been able to surpass is fascinating. (With the twist that Communist China is the society performing much of the oppressing, while being home to hundred of millions of the oppressed.)
Leaving aside the non-trivial concerns about population, there is absolutely no reason to feel that such long distance trade (Brazil-China, Argentina-India, etc) would be impossible using tools already available - tractors running on biodiesel, ships using sails/sail assistance, and railroads.
What is impossible to imagine is driving 20 miles to get a burger and fries being a daily occurence for hundreds of millions of people. Especially the burgers - cattle raised hundreds or thousands of miles from where they are fattened using grain that also travels hundreds or thousands of miles, after which the meat is then frozen and shipped hundreds or thousands of miles before it is eaten.
Expat, excellent post! The Falls of Clyde is an interesting history of early oil and wheat transport by sail. Sounds as if the rerigging to gaff was as done for reregistry to US as for practical reasons. I once owned the book 'Coasting Captain' by Henry Tawes. The book was written from Captain Tawes logs and spans his career from the 1870s to the 1920s. Captain Tawes owned and captained a large coasting schooner between the islands and the east and southern coasts of the US. Tawes loaded all sorts of cargo from molasses and rum to lumber and guano. Its a fascinating book if you can locate it in a nearby library. I believe that we will once again see cargo and passanger trade under sail. After all, the Egypians were shipping wheat under sail near the beginning of recorded history and they didnt need oil.
http://www.1000daysatsea.blogspot.com
These two people are showing us what can be done with a Gaff Rig Schooner That the captian built with other members of his family 30 years ago.
Anyone building the Viking longboats will get good boats for the coast runnings that they did.
Sailing the sport of the rich, is some of the best survivalable learning that can be taught the kids and college aged students of present day.
My dad knows a lot of roping from his days truck driving, that were taught to him by sailors in the family.
Mountain climbing teachs some of those roping skills.
There are so many methods that most people do not think of that can keep us from falling into total chaos. We just don't think about them in our modern world because we have been so used to picking up the cell phone to order a pizza.
You don't have to be rich to learn to sail. For example, I'm a volunteer instructor with SCUM (Sailing Club at the University of Minnesota) where for a $200 annual membership you can get all the sailing lessons you want. (UM student fee is $150) I learned to sail with the Cal Sailing Club in Berkeley, California, and their fees are even lower.
If you can sail and can fix sailboats you then have two very valuable skills. Also, sailors generally are fun and mellow people (except for racing fanatics). Sailing is a lifetime sport--and I know of no activity that is better for building justified self-respect.
The Falls of Clyde is a darned impressive boat. I've rented it for events of hundreds of people at a time, it's a great venue. Great to see a big steel-hulled ship with impressive sailing ability. The wave of the future?
Certainly there's no technical reason that international trade couldn't continue in the fact of depleted oil supplies, but trade did significantly suffer during the 1930's Great Depression. I'd suggest a peak-oil triggered major economic downturn is almost certain to significantly affect international trade. For countries that are extremely dependent on imports for basic needs (which I would guess there are far more of now than in the 1930's) this could definitely have serious consequences.
Urbanization will allow the USA to get by with a lot less oil consumption. Living in an urban centre, you can still use a car as your main mode of transport, but instead of driving 15000 miles a year you are driving 6000 miles a year. Double the fuel efficiency and that is down to an effective 3000 miles per year (20% of current). There is no logical reason why this transition alone necessitates economic collapse- a far bigger problem for the USA at the median is globalization (China and India).
I think we use different ideas of 'urbanization' - I can't imagine a typical urban dweller needing to drive a personal vehicle an 'effective' 3000 miles per year.
As a guess, you don't have much experience of cities where owning a car is often considered a liability, like NYC or Amsterdam, or of living in an area where urban means living space is too valuable to use for parking cars for anyone but the truly rich.
Driving less is not the cause of collapse - collapse (I prefer 'fracturing') comes in an American context because there are few alternatives to using an IC motor for transporting goods, and because people live in arrangements which require personal transportation. The article from the Globe and Mail yesterday was an interesting read. Actually eye opening, in a way - the first generation in history which actually grew up owning mass personal transportation, essentially seeing it as a part of normal human existence, is now discovering old age and the restrictions old age means in terms of driving. And what this means concretely for their own welfare. If there is anything which is absolutely guaranteed to motivate Boomers, at whatever cost to anyone else older or younger, it is their own self-interest. After all, they were the ones that 'rationalized' the previous 'costly' system of local medical care, and are now themselves discovering that driving 20 miles to the nearest clinic doesn't work well when they can't drive - which means that this situation is now a major, major problem, where before, it was just the invisible hand at work for the benefit of all. (I'll stop about Boomers now - they are a major reason for my idea of 'fracturing' though, as they have been plunderers, not caretakers, of their society - while blaming everything but themselves for their own behavior.)
Europe, for example, considers this fact so self-obvious, that writing an article detailing the need for planning work would be almost absurd - of course cities and towns in a country like Germany are structured to be livable for all their inhabitants, not merely fit people capable of driving a car, with the economic means to afford one. We can quibble over German or Dutch or French planning acumen in this regard, but the idea that town planners need to take into account drivers becoming non-drivers would be too self-evident to discuss.
Expat: You make very good points. I live in midtown Toronto and own a car.One could certainly drive less than 6000 miles a year-unless you are leaving the city it would be difficult to drive more than this number of miles (if you live downtown). The main point I was trying to make is that an extremely dramatic decline in US oil consumption in no way makes economic decline a necessity.
BrianT,
You seem to believe that all the commuters out there will simply quit coming to work. There is not enough mass transit to make up for the loss of the automobile in the US.
But, more importantly, you seem to forget how large a part the automobile itself plays in the economic engine. The US was built around the auto. Think of all the businesses that directly and indirectly depend upon the auto. Of course there are the assembly plants. (Thirty years ago, that would have included steel plants and die plants and so on, but there is little left of the old industrial US). There are the mechanics. The gasoline stations. The manufacturer of gasoline pumps. Tire manufacturers. Road builders. Road maintainers. The people who build the machines that build and maintain the roads. There are the insurance companies. The auto glass people. The fluids people. There are drive-ins and after-market geegaws. And each one of those worker's salaries are spent within the community and circulated several times over.
This is a hugely integrated, complex system that needs each one of its parts to function properly. Now, that is not to say that once the shakeout begins it won't eventually settle. But to what?
I dare say it won't be based upon lots of people driving a few thousand miles each year. My guess is the automobile will become an item of extreme luxury. So, in the not so distant future, when you are walking in the cold to buy a loaf of bread from a local baker, that sleek black car that eases by will inspire typical American feelings of envy. It will not be Joe Blow, average American worker at the wheel, unless he is the chauffeur.
Brian T:
To add to Cherenkov points, you live in Ontario and the auto industry here became the largest auto manufacturing jurisdiction in North America a few years ago. Its decline will affect Toronto probably more than many American cities. Also high oil prices are helping push the Canadian dollar higher. This hurts the auto industry and all the rest of the manufacturing industry in Ontario. Without manufacturing we in Ontario will probably become a have not province. I am invovled in a plant that supplies the auto industry and with my work I deal with outside contractors and suppliers. The economic spinoffs from these facilities will be hard to replace.
Guys: The loss of auto manufacturing has nothing at all to do with peak oil. Oil could be $5 a barrel and eventually a lot of these jobs are going. Chrysler just partnered up with Chery in China. There is talk of India putting out a $4000 car soon. You can't blame every single problem in the world or your life on peak oil.
You make a good point. Certainly there are people that commute a fixed distance to work each day. There are also a large number of people that drive indeterminate distances each day. Think of service people traveling around a territory of multiple states repairing fairly expensive equipment. Think of salespeople visiting customers in multiple states. Certainly some of that can be done by phone and computer. However, face to face contact is most effective. The company that takes away the company car and tries to substitute video chats will lose market share to the companies that keep sending sales guys to each customer. The change will happen eventually, but it won't happen quickly.
I'm not sure many people would say it was a necessity - with prudent government policies, and a massive change of attitude change among consumers and corporations, any modern, sophisticated economy should in principle be able to survive rapidly decline oil supplies. But those policies and attitude changes needed to happen yesterday, if significant decline rates are to start in the next 10 years. Not only didn't they happen, but there's no indication that they're likely to any time soon. The only thing I can see staving of significant economic decline is for oil production to be boosted sufficiently to hold off the peak for another 10 years: not impossible, but it's hard to see where all that oil would come from. Oh, and genuine planning for that peak would have to start within the next or so year.
As I've said before - the Selfish generation (or Boomers), children of the Greatest Generation are really the root cause of most of the problems Gen X/Y is picking up today.
--
When no-one around you understands
start your own revolution
and cut out the middle man
In no small part by reproducing and creating your generation.
Ah well, seemed like a good idea at the time.
well, that's very clever
but at the end of the day our problems are long term structures and patterns set over the last decades
i think it is pretty hard to pin the blame on people just coming into positions of any sort of influence... just look who dominates the economy...
--
When no-one around you understands
start your own revolution
and cut out the middle man
WEll RA,
Here's your generations chance to show us up, the opportunity is at your door, but, let me guess, nintendo wrist and eye fatigue and your overweight belly from living on the couch just makes it a weeee bit tough to make an effort to do something about your government.
My generation DID RISE UP, and yours is doing what. I know, you complain that we didn't give you chance. Look around RA. Your generation grew up in a time that knowledge and access to knowledge was and still is at all time world high. Yet, you can't look for much less WORK an answer to your problem. Its easier to claim we kept you from it. What a joke you are.
My generation was shot at, killed, murdered, beaten, and treated by the PTB with contempt, but the streets were full and people stood up. MOST of the ones now doing this are the SAME ONES that did it years ago. The congress did its job when the parents saw what was happening and told them to straighten this out.
The day I see you on a street corner protesting with your generation and bringing on those just below you, then you will get my respect.
RIght now your just some whining Xer who thought Punk rock made him tough.
Lets see,.. those before you screwed you and those now after are 'unhirable. Yep, your perrrrfect in your own deluded grandeur of self induced perfection.
What have you done to tweak the PTB RA. What can you lay claim to that shows you tried at the least to prevent what you claim is coming besides whine that some one else isn't doing it for you.
When I read snivel like this from people that grew up thinking that it was supposed to be handed to you, and you bought it. Whose fault is that.
I bet I do more than you to this day, and I can guarantee that I paid and still pay for trying to work for information you need, and its a risk I doubt you would even entertain, and you walk around in blind ignorance.
Makes it tough to want to keep helping your ilk.
Ubi Bene ibi patria
All too true. In the end, it always comes down to population.
The U.S. wants Mongolia to reduce their population growth rate. But a Mongolian family with 12 kids living in a tent and burning wood for fuel has a smaller footprint than an American family with two kids, driving SUVs to McDonald's. Clearly, the best thing the boomers could have done for the planet was not have kids. Ditto the boomers' parents, and their parents.
Obviously, it's not just the boomers' fault. This train wreck was set in motion long before they were born.
Perhaps it has not occured to you that the selfish generation inherited a system that they in no way asked for. Now your generation, the whiners, have inherited a system that they in no way asked for. You can choose to get over it and go on with your life or spend the rest of your life comlaining about your lot and pointing fingers at others. I believe you will find your life much more satisfying if you attempt improve your lot instead of complaining about it.
You see I just don't buy that - and actually the Whiners are the generation below us - the ones in and coming out of college now - completely unhirable.
But your lot - the boomers at any rate - from very early - as early as you could decide things, your massive demographic led every marketer to pander to you. Your decision making ability punched above its weight from the word go.
You shuffled your parents off into retirement so you could piss away what they'd built up over decades based on their experiences during the depression.
As to attempting to improve - last go round the Gen X attempt to start to change things was, as always, stamped down by the Boomers... until you lot start dying off you'll keep doing that... bloody boomers ;-)
(you have a better argument by the way: without us you lot wouldn't be here so quit your bitching)
--
When no-one around you understands
start your own revolution
and cut out the middle man
RA--
Ah yes, it is the boomers fault---
You must be one of those 80's-90's "me" generation, Ronald Reagan simpletons--
While I admit most of the Boomers took the Blue Pill, your generation didn't even know about the Red Pill. They are on the path, and want nothing to do with reality, and don't want anyone talking about getting off--
All of the survivors (if any) will need to sort it out on the other side---
And, observing the survival skills of your generation, there will not be many of you.
But good luck, sorry you missed the 60's-- it was fun
Huh?
Boomers were the engine of the Reagan/Thatcher selfishness... you can hardly blame the kids that grew up in it repulsed by it.
I am sure the 60s were fun - having all that wealth, the solid economy built by your parents and shirking responsibility must have been a blast. Then collectively you voted in the Reagan years of selfishness low taxes, crappy education spending and everything else that meant that when my bunch started coming out of college in the early-to-mid nineties we were finding an economy that is sliding to oblivion.
So we set out to change the world with the Internet and your bunch tried to screw that up too... bloody boomers ;-)
--
When no-one around you understands
start your own revolution
and cut out the middle man
blame as passive-aggressive behavior:
Goggle
Where IS that 'Theory of Everything' ?
Here
it is !
I find it hard to believe that '- and actually the Whiners are the generation below us - the ones in and coming out of college now - completely unhirable.' the generation below you are worse than you personally. In fact, I have three daughters and all are probably of your generation and none of them are whiners comprable to you. They all have college degrees, lives of their own and families of their own. They are all well aware of PO, CC and the incompetence of the current administration...but they have not placed blame on the boomers. We have very frank discussions and I have yet to hear one of them blame my generation for the problems that they inherited. I place far more weight on their opinions than on yours...I know how hard they have worked to get where they are. They dont have time to complain.lol I will decline to use your suggestion about a better arguement. I am very glad my daughters are here. Personally, I have led the life of a contrarian. I began riding motorcycles when I was thirteen and continue to ride bikes. When I started riding Madison Ave was not pushing motorcycles. I never bought into christianity or any other ideology. I have never worn 'plastic clothes' and have chosen cotton and wool. I have never inherited a nickle from anyone. My parents retired when they wanted to retire. See what happens when you try to lump a lot of people under one banner and indict all of them for some wrong that is perceived only by you? Your arguement is full of holes. Each generation will have to find their own way. For the many generations that lived before the industrial age very little change in upward mobility happened. I believe that coming generations will face something like that. Only the very brightest will achieve, the rest will hoe the row. Thats the way it was and thats the way it will be.
Only the brightest will achieve.
Why River, the country is in a very bad situation currently. The world also. Achieve in a world run by people that use your children. They will succeed if they toe the line. That line is getting tight and narrow.
We are in a Constitutional crisis and Constitutional lawyers agree and wonder why nothing is being done.
Not one generation is making the Congress understand the Constitution, not one. With the latest order from King George he proclaims Congress can't over rule him if he says people don't have to respond to orders to appear before congress. Its getting very serious.
Paul Craig Roberts just issued some statements that are astounding. Sounds like he is one of us crazy conspiracy nuts. He warned on Thom Hartman's show that he thought it possible a false flag attack was coming. Astonishing and its no where to be seen except on the net.
The admin just told Congressman Defazio from Oregon, on the Homeland security committee, that he could not view documents "even in the bubble" at the White House. The documents denied him, .. he wanted to see the admins plan on continuity of govt in the case of terrorism or other event. Denial of his request his a first I think. Another instance of King Rule.
Yet no one sees it. Or don;t think it matters or the next guy will straighten it out. No President is going to give back power.
Its the reasoning that Paul Roberts uses for why this is so dangerous, and its correct and obvious. These new powers of the President are powerful. In doing this he is destroying the Republican party. How many see a way for any Republican candidate to "legally" win President. The Senate and Congress could see more Republicans lose and the advantage slip. Does this seem like a man concerned about the Party and its future. Not to me.
So do you think he wishes to hand such power off to a Democrat. That doesn't seem likely.
YET the democrats are aware of the powers etc. So is this the reason they don't wish to impeach. A belief that they will grab the "ring of power" and rule.
I don't like that idea either. The democrats are hoping that no one catches on. Its to late for that and the public is wise. The screams and pleads for action are growing each and every day.
this is all very dangerous, and it is real. If all generations don't learn what the Constitution is and what it REALLY means to their future, then the country you THINK is ahead will not even start. Being bright and a slave, or a dumb and a slave. Tell me which one will be happier.
Also consider what is happening in the Middle East and the communication coming from there, as reflected by Cid Yama's Posts.
Russia has sent aircraft TWICE in to British airspace in the last few days. Violating with jets that are capable of you know what.
Putin is a lacky of Bush, not likely. I loved the picture on the beach in Maine with Bush talking and waving his arms about, and Bush is not looking at Putin. Putin is looking at GW and has such a subtle look and smile, that to read to me, "what an arrogant idiot". Is Putin mistaken, and does he think he (Bush) will not use nukes. No Putin knows they will. They want to use their weapons it appears.
like I said its getting dangerous and time to take back your Constitution is fading.
Quid Clarius Astris
Ubi Bene ibi patria
Prisoner X -
Yes our constitution is currently valued, by the powers that be, about equal to toilet paper.
There are long-term issues and near-term issues but if the current administration is allowed to flout the constitution, tradition, and law, then all those other issues pretty much become secondary.
Want to be an enemy combatant? Want everything of yours stripped away because you've done 'something to undermine the troops in Iraq'?
Where we're at RIGHT NOW is a nasty ugly place. I fear for our future even without peak anything.
The US political system is now hopelessly dysfunctional and in terminal decline. It has been weighed in the balance and found wanting. It's days are numbered, I fear.
(Sigh!) It was good while it lasted.
"What form of government did you give us, Dr. Franklin?"
"A republic, IF YOU CAN KEEP IT!"
if they have families of their own they are unlikely to be the generation after me... i am in my 30's
we are having to work in an economy vastly different to the one the boomers inherited at similar ages
i think it is great you are a contrarian - very healthy - but by that label you acknowledge that your group as a whole has not embraced those smart choices...
but what i do find odd is how it is even a point of debate that the boomers - who have dominated political decision making as a group, for decades now, due to their demographic size... and the group who run EVERYTHING now... are not the group who are perpetuating the problem, and indeed made it as bad as it is...
the argument about individuals is kinda irrelevant when it comes to whether or not society as a broad group has failed for generations to take necessary actions
and i find it interesting that my pointing that out leads to the label of whining - whining is an interesting word from a psychological point of view as it is often used by bullies to distance themselves from their actions by de-legitimizing the complaints of the bullied...
--
When no-one around you understands
start your own revolution
and cut out the middle man
RA-
I agree- you are screwed-------
And brainless boomers voted for Ronald and Maggie-------
However, if you are in your 30's, you all really drank the kool aid----
I was out on the internet before Netscape 1-- Mosaic was around, but challenging. It took 3 years before the corporate rape and scrapers knew what was happening---
Your generation is selling commodities to each other, and leveraging derativies, and thinking your are revolutionary.
You must realize, there were very few people of the 60's generation who were politically literate, it was mostly a cultural thing--
Few read Fanon or Adorno, let alone could understand the relation between user and exchange value--