President Obama Options

[Oasis]

Just nuke China back in to the stone age where they belong and we won't have to worry about any global warming 'crisis'

[Mommy]

In the two days that have passed since he took the oath, Obama has gotten off to a smooth, smart and successful start, impressing the general public. But dark, stormy clouds continue to gather over the economy:

* Paul Volcker, one of the most respected economic figures in the country, told Congress yesterday that it may take trillions of federal dollars in spending, loans and guarantees to put us aright. That comes at a time when Washington is already deeply in hock.

* The markets have been on a roller coaster since the inauguration. On Tuesday, they suffered their biggest fall on any inauguration day in history; on Wednesday, they climbed up; today, they are down again. As one observer told me today, “there just isn’t any confidence yet.”

* There is growing talk in both the U.S. and the U.K. that banks are continuing to weaken so much that governments may have to nationalize them – a huge step. And few think that if Washington takes over Bank of America and Citi that it can stop there. “How will J.P. Morgan compete against one percent loans from a nationalized Bank of America? It can’t. If we go down that road, nationalization would have to be widespread.” John Gapper, a noted columnist, says today in the Financial Times that nationalization of the top 10 banks in the U.S. could easily cost a trillion dollars.

* Unemployment continues to climb. Microsoft today announced the first broad layoffs in its history. How many more jobs will be lost in coming months is anybody’s guess. One well-informed observer told me over the weekend that the job losses of 500,000 a month over the fourth quarter – dramatic as they were — are likely to be topped in the first quarter of this year, perhaps reaching 750,000 a month.

* Meanwhile, questions are rising about whether a stimulus plan heavy on infrastructure will actually work. The Congressional Budget Office yesterday said that more than half of the planned spending would not occur until after fiscal year 2010. Is that way too late? And today the Wall Street Journal on its front page reports on how political leaders are already intervening on how bank bailout funds are allocated. Can you imagine how many snouts will be in the trough if money for roads, bridges and the like are not carefully, carefully controlled?

* Finally, it appears that Tim Geithner will be confirmed at Secretary of the Treasury – which is very good news for Obama. Geithner is highly talented. Yet questions now swirl about him, asking whether he can still be a strong, effective chief economic spokesman for the administration. We shall see.

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/22/in-t...rkening-clouds/

[Mommy]

lol http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/...er.limbaugh.cnn I actually agree with what Limbaugh said. I don't want the government taking over all these things either.

[Hartmann]

Well, the government probably can't directly tell you not to drive SUV, chances are they won't since it's not practical. What government can do are through other policies like emission standards, factory CO2 output, and cleaner/alternative fuel which I believe is the right way to go especially if you have trusted advisers who are in-the-know for this area. I think it's great that you recycle and compost (if I had a back yard I'd compost too), but unless there's a change in public attitude it's very hard to get enough people to recycle to make a difference. I live in a fairly liberal town where people practically can recycle everything they own, but even here it's hard to do. Plus you don't really know what you're doing is actually for the better for the worse. You might think that canvas bags are better than plastic bags, but what makes it true besides a gut feeling? What the energy and CO2 emission cost for 1 canvas bag is the same as 10,000 plastic bags? What if you own 5 canvas bags? What if you recycle plastic bags (which I don't know why people don't insist you recycle them since they're pretty easy to melt down and re-extrude). I personally don't know these things if someone doesn't tell me.

Well, from what I hear from people who are involved with climate research, they truly believe what we're doing is killing the planet. I think their frustration mostly reside in people's lack of information on this subject. Granted, I don't really think any average joes out there is gonna pick up a Science paper and read about the CO2 levels in melting north atlantic ice capsules, chances are I won't either. And they sit in seminar after seminar listening about new findings in climate change research that it is dramatically changing the environment on this earth, to only have people who know not a whole lot of about climate claim that they're leftist and that what they believe in is bullshit. I can understand their frustration. If people who don't know much about my research and told me that it's not real, I'd be very frustrated too. Anyway, that's beside the point.

BTW (aww)

The thing is, CO2 is not the worst greenhouse gas and it is produced naturally at just as high of levels as it artificially.

A lot of the research I have been reading has pointed to the fact that warming of the planet (cyclical) may produce CO2, rather than the other way around.

Me personally, I'm more concerned about smog in cities and water quality, yet we're worried about ice caps that have actually become larger. I have no problem with being green, I just don't want the government shoving it down the throats of its citizens and the country's businesses.

Doesn't anyone remember the story from the 1900s that claimed the world was coming to an end because the sea ice was vanishing... It was disproved 30 years later.

[chook]

Well that case, I will melt all you all's hearts.

I think its a he, and he has a hard-on!

[Dogmeat]

welcome to the enviro-fascist state

[FORSAKENR320]

Well that case, I will melt all you all's hearts.

pointy is not cuddly!