They do that to get money out of you--so do something in return that costs money. In my case, when they ask me if I'd like to try something or buy something, I politely say, "No thank you." and then stand there and say nothing.

Eventually, they figure it out and start talking, but in the meantime I've managed to waste 10-15 cents of their time. That's probably about what they expect to make off of their sales pitch, so if enough people do it, they'll stop the madness.

Was a national policy that prevented us from replacing diminishing domestic production due to aging oil fields, and instead funnel currency to banana republics.

What's really reckless is not producing more oil--which will lead inevitably to the use of more coal with all of its accompanying environmental problems.

Our policy has been no new drilling for the past 25 years. Each year, the Dems say, "Well, it won't come online for at least 10 years, so it can't be part of the solution." That's what was really reckless...

Sorry for cheating on you honey, but the "facts on the ground have changed". What kind of B.S. is that?!?

He broke his word when it suited him--that's the end of it.

Pathetic--end even more pathetic are the Obama supporters trying to rationalize this away. So is this the "Change we can believe in"???

all take years to build, have no immediate impact and uncertain long-term impact. Should we just sit on our hands and do nothing?

The same people have been making the same arguments about oil exploration every year for the past 30 years. If we'd done something responsible 30 years ago, we wouldn't be sending billions of dollars a day to sh!t countries and watching our currency devalue and security diminish as a result.

If we don't drill for oil, we'll make it up some other way. Perhaps we'll just make diesel out of soy and in the process starve the entire developing world. Maybe then demand would dry up a bit...

Where is the substance? If you want to fault someone, fault the Air Force since they can't seem to run a bid properly. Don't fault the guy who had the stones to stand up to wrong doing.

And I don't care if this costs 2x what it would if he'd kept his mouth shut. Not putting up with crap like this will keep the costs low for every other contract down the road.

Is he more of the same having given up 5 years of his life for us? Or how about when he tried to tackle campaign finance, public corruption and immigration while everybody else tried to run the other way?

I don't get the vitriol. He has decades of history proving him to be an honest, hard-working individual. You may not agree with his policies, but if you don't respect the man it doesn't speak well for your character.

edsylv, I always love the Kennedy comparison since it's so completely moronic. If you take Obama at his word, he would never have invaded Vietnam, would never have invaded Cuba, would never have had his CIA install the Baath party in Iraq, and would never have instituted the trade embargo with Cuba (preferring instead to keep a dialog open)

he's also probably smart enough to keep from calling himself a donut in front of the world at the Berlin Wall.

You cite new production from existing fields as adding to the bucket, but completely forget new production from new fields.

For example, where do the oil-sands fit within your peak oil philosophy? Also, where do new technologies in old fields fit? At $140/barrel, going back to stripper wells to extract the 70% of oil that remains becomes much more interesting.

as soon as either one of them says something truthful about the other, I'll each my shoe. This is no different than that 3rd term of Bush crap Obama's selling.

The quote was poorly chosen.

Bringing up McCains flips is not a legitimate response to whether or not Obama's position is politically motivated. It's a regression to playground logic.

Stupid people ignorant of econ prinicples make statements like that about oil. We're suffering now for stupid decisions made 20 years ago. If we keep making the same stupid decisions, we'll suffer more 10 years from now. If we drill, it might not affect world prices, but it sure as hell will affect the % of oil we import. This will in turn affect out export balance, current accounts balance and value of the dollar. We're sending $400,000,000,000/year overseas because our domestic supply hasn't been replaced.

With regard to Cuba, I agree. Rape and pillage their land too.

That another two-bit government of a banana republic, propped up by the U.S. is ungrateful. If the U.S. left today, the place would become an even larger cesspool of ignoramuses killing each other. Where exactly did this ignoramus get 18 months?

How is this any more newsworthy than the crap I post on YouTube? Until they put some money behind it's nothing but some poorly-shot footage--your claim that they're going to spend 150k notwithstanding.

Why don't we just stop replacing our diminishing oil production capacity and pray that the 250 million cars on the road find something else to run on.

The author is either a liar or an idiot when he claims that producing more of our own won't affect our current account balance. Perhaps he thinks we're all idiots.

The only possible justification for his assinine arguments is if he's looking to a decrease in domestic production to force a decrease in domestic consumption. If that's the case, at least he could be honest about it.

...except how to run a country. Identifying the need to change is easy, it's getting people to change that's hard.

That's why Obama worries me. He talks change, but I haven't seen evidence of him creating it. McCain on the other hand is without question an agent of change.