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Elijah Harper, R.I.P.
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That’s a Lot of Caca in Caracas
May 16, 2013 | 7 comments
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Canadian PM: Keystone XL Pipeline “Absolutely Needs To Go Ahead.”
May 16, 2013 | 2 comments
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Has Obama Done Sufficient Damage Control With The IRS?
May 15, 2013 | 8 comments
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Liberals Surprisingly Re-Elected in British Columbia
May 15, 2013 | 1 comment
The Spectacle Blog
Well, it’s official. The Obama Administration has rejected the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Earlier today, Ross Kaminsky noted that the State Department will permit TransCanada to submit a new proposal. Never mind that TransCanada had also previously plotted and studied fourteen different routes before settling on the route that has now been rejected. Here is what I wrote about Keystone when the Obama Administration delayed its approval back in November. Following the delay, Republicans in Congress gave Obama an ultimatum to make a final decision about Keystone within 60 days, rather than after the 2012 election, as part of the payroll tax cut extension last month.
So where does TransCanada go from here? As of this writing, they have not yet provided a formal response. After the delay was announced, TransCanada indicated its willingness to re-route Keystone. But quite frankly I cannot see TransCanada submitting another proposal as long as President Obama is in the White House. I doubt any proposal submitted by TransCanada would mollify the environmentalists and it appears the environmentalists have trumped the unions on this issue. As long as this is the case, it would be hopeless impractical to submit any new proposal in the forseeable future. That is unless a different President is sworn into office in 368 days from now.
But is TransCanada prepared to wait that long? After the delay was announced, Prime Minister Stephen Harper indicated it would step up its effort to sell its oil to Asia. Indeed, Harper is set to visit China next month with just that purpose in mind.
In the meantime, you can be sure that Keystone will be raised in tomorrow night’s debate in Greenville, South Carolina. Earlier today, Newt Gingrich called the decision “a stunningly stupid thing to do.” It isn’t the first time Newt has commented on Keystone. During a GOP debate in Sioux City, Iowa back in December he called the Obama Administration’s decision to delay the project “utterly irrational.”
View all comments (22) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/01/18/what-is-transcanadas-next-move
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Oldefarte| 1.18.12 @ 4:34PM
Newt is only re-informcing my point of.....IT'S THE DEMOCRATS, STUPIDS!!!!!!!!!!
Occam's Tool| 1.18.12 @ 4:57PM
The Dhimmicrats are vermin. They would rather support terrorists, child rape, mutilation, and murder.
Bob Grant| 1.18.12 @ 5:20PM
I must admit, part of me wants Canada to sell to the Chinese because of the negative political implications...and they would be huge considering the projected gas hikes this year.
The pain, however, would be too much for many who have struggled enough under this administration so I cannot in good faith root for the Chinese.
What a disaster this guy has been for the country. November cannot come soon enough.
btims| 1.18.12 @ 5:22PM
Barack The Magic Muslim famously said in a radio interview that he wanted energy prices to "necessarily skyrocket".
Curious when Bush 43 was president and gas prices peaked up, new stories were all over the place trying to tie him and Cheney to the profits of the evil oil companies. Now when prices are even higher, there are ZERO such stories linking Obama to high prices. Curious.
RJ| 1.18.12 @ 5:43PM
If the Obama administration would shoot this project down before the election, think of what it will feel free to do after the election.
Ross Kaminsky | 1.18.12 @ 5:45PM
I agree, Aaron. TransCanada won't resubmit until after the election.
beebop2| 1.18.12 @ 6:02PM
I am ashamed to admit that I voted for HER instead of HIM in the democrat primary. There is no turning back now. And? What the hell is State doing making the final decision? Seriously? I am watching Feinstein on FOX as we speak. What the hell?
R Martin| 1.18.12 @ 6:49PM
State is a red herring. The call was made by Obama. The better question is why does one man get to make this call. Does he really have that authority? This stinks.
Dai Alanye | 1.19.12 @ 10:59AM
Yes, a person would need to be fairly simple to believe Hillary made this decision. It takes monumental cynicism and narcissism to turn down a project this valuable to the nation, and I believe only Obama meets the requirements.
It's possible he's hoping Canada will resubmit, after which he'll approve in an attempt to show the greenies that he tried, and the unions that he's still their best buddy. That scenario has the Axelrod touch.
Lullabys, Legends and Lies| 1.18.12 @ 6:39PM
This announcement sucks on the job front, but it's kind of good news in a way too, on splitting the Left's support for Obama front!! The President picked the Environmentalists over the Unions on this one, which isn't the first time he's kicked the Unions in the nuts!! Later on this year as he accepts the nomination of his Party for President, he'll be doing it in a Right-To-Work-State, a State with the lowest percentage of Union Workers in the entire Country, in the Bank of America stadium in Charlotte, N.C. built by Non-Union Labor to boot. I'm sure the dues paying members of Unions all across the Country won't have a problem with this? Hey Unions!! Send me your Dues money, so I can back the Environmentalists, and deny you guaranteed jobs, and then I'm off to Charlotte!! You don't have a problem with that, do you?
Psst!! Union Workers!! Vote Republican in 2012, and that pipeline will be built!!
Kingofthenet| 1.18.12 @ 7:10PM
...and your jobs will go to 'right to work' for nothing states. Obama is shrewd, he already locked up Union Votes, after the Fiasco in Wisconsin and ALL the Rethugs hating on the union man, no way you get one union vote. He needs the 'Greens' Now, after his Reelection the pipeline will get a quick approval.
Bob Grant| 1.18.12 @ 7:29PM
Fool,
So it's o.k. your boy delays good paying union jobs, all for political purposes?
I know plenty of union people and I'd say most despise the man: black, white, brown.
Your boy overstepped on the political front this time. He doesn't do politics very well now does he?
Just think where he'd be if he didn't have a lapdog media cleaning up his messes?
Your boy is in over his head, now isn't he?
Dan Martin| 1.19.12 @ 10:52AM
Kingofthenet, you've figured it out! Obama has the union vote locked up. To clarify, he has the union vote
that truly matters--the public sector union vote.
The trade unions can go to hell, as far as President Obama is concerned.
Bob K.| 1.18.12 @ 7:03PM
I don't think this is a done deal at all. This is politics: Raw meat for the electorate in both parties!
Canada still has to get it's oil out of Canada to sell it although it may now already be under contract to do so. (And if it is don't count on much of it staying in the US after the pipeline is built.) Their only short term alternative to the Pipe Line is shipping it out via the St. Lawrence Seaway. The rumored possibility of a pipeline to Vancouver doesn't seem realistic.
This will all change after the election even if Obama wins. He is only thinking votes at this time.
Dan| 1.18.12 @ 7:07PM
Bob,
it's done, the obama creature is trying to rev up the hard left of their party.
It's unbelievable though that any American administration would blow this deal up. Unbelievable. Furthermore, going into an election year with over 10%+ plus real unemployment, and he's blowing up this job creator.
Unbelievable.
There's no doubt anymore that the creature is on a mission of destruction. Rush Limbaugh has been proven prescient, been proven to be right on the money about the creature.
Nite| 1.18.12 @ 7:25PM
Well Obama just handed the Republican GOP candidates a club before the election. Higher gasoline should change the mind of voters. Hopefully, this will throw Obama out the door.
Kingofthenet| 1.18.12 @ 7:48PM
He ALREADY made a deal with the Saudi's BEFORE nixing this, Oil will flow like water...Just in time for the Election.
Bob Grant| 1.18.12 @ 7:57PM
I don't think your boy has the smarts to pull it off. The Saudis would play him like a cheap buzug.
Dan| 1.18.12 @ 11:14PM
The Sauds are pushing for crude around $100/bbl.
So I don't see how that helps Obama. When the Sumner driving seasons rolls around, and Americans are struggling to find money for vacation time, ordinary weekend junkets and just plain spending time with friends and relatives, I don't see any deal that the house of saud would be interested in.
The only thing he would have to offer is pressuring Jews. But he's already tried that, and Netanyahu called his bluff and went on a counterattack against him.
Leaving only Obama to promise to take out the Iranian Manhattan project. But the Sauds would be fools to believe the metrosexual would go after Iran.
Richard Baker| 1.18.12 @ 10:08PM
I believe the Canadians will strike a deal with the Chinese well in advance of the election. Yes, they would love to work with us but, regardless, they will get the oil flowing and the money coming in as a National Priority. I don't blame them at all for doing what's in THEIR interest. That we would do the same.
KennesawJack| 1.19.12 @ 9:25AM
What are all the Obamarx worshipers going to do if Harper, after he visits China, announces that China is willing to foot the bill (with dollars paid by America as interest on our debt) to build the pipeline westward and take all the oil Canada can ship them? I don't agree that Canada will hold off on anything until after the election. Why would they want to chance that Obamarx gets re-elected and all they have to show for waiting is a lost year? Are they willing to bet that, if he wins, he'll then throw the environmentalists under the bus and approve the pipeline? I don't think so. Building that pipeline is antithetical to Obamarx's goal of the systematic destruction of America as a world power. No, Canada doesn't owe us a damn thing and unlike Obamarx, Harper will act in his country's best interest. What a shameful day, in an administration full of them, for America.
Questionman| 1.22.12 @ 4:19PM
This election is going to be about the economy and income inequality, and Republicans lose on all counts. So they have begun the race baiting now to demean the President by racial association later in the campaign. Racists will not consider any of President Obama’s accomplishments that helped every American because their hate deprives them of basic objectivity. Instead they will remember that all African Americans are lazy and not like us because Republicans will have hammered them mercilessly with racially-bigoted remarks and they will do anything to prevent “one of them” from residing in a place reserved for rich white males.
Fortunately, most Americans are not vile racists and they understand that President Obama’s policies saved the economy and kept America safe, and that Republicans did everything possible to lavish more riches on the wealthy and subvert economic recovery. Republicans have no one but themselves to blame for their unenviable position that forces them to resort to race-baiting as an election strategy, and the American people will not forget when November rolls around.
This is perhaps the dumbest post I've ever seen on FB. This would only create about 6,500 jobs; on your logic, any kind of environmental destruction that would created about that many jobs would be justified. The German abattoirs created jobs, too. Are they justified? Meanwhile, the GOP-controlled congress shoveled Obama's job bill, which would have created over a million jobs. Your post is dumb, dumb, and dumb.