McCain may have voted with Bush 95% of the time, I’ll have to double check that. But one thing I won’t have to double check is who voted for the Bush-Cheney Energy Policy and who didn’t. Barack Obama voted for the Bush-Cheney Energy Policy. John McCain didn’t vote for it. In fact of those who ran for President in this election cycle only three candidates voted for the Bush-Cheney Energy Policy: Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo and Barack Obama.

You can’t run away from that vote Barack. I am going to hang it around your neck like an albatross. Talk about energy and I will bring up that vote and I will bring up the fact that you have received more money from oil & gas executives than all other candidates combined. You are the oil & gas con man.

From the Associated Press:

“On gas prices, John McCain’s part of the problem,” the Obama ad states. “McCain and Bush support a drilling plan that won’t produce a drop of oil for seven years. McCain will give more tax breaks to big oil. He’s voted with Bush 95 percent of the time.

“Barack Obama will make energy independence an urgent priority. Raise mileage standards. Fast-track technology for alternative fuels. A $1,000 tax cut to help families as we break the grip of foreign oil. A real plan and new energy.”

McCain and Bush want Congress to lift the ban on drilling on the continental shelf. If Congress agrees and states then permit it, energy experts say it would take at least five to seven years before new drilling could begin.

Obama’s claim that McCain would give more tax breaks to oil companies is based on McCain’s proposal to cut overall corporate tax rates. The campaign cited a study by the Democratic-leaning Center for American Progress Action Fund that concluded McCain’s proposal to cut corporate tax rates from 35 percent to 25 percent would cut taxes on the top five U.S. oil companies by $3.8 billion a year.

McCain, however, did vote against a 2005 energy bill backed by President Bush, saying at the time that it included billions of dollars in unnecessary tax breaks for the oil industry. Obama voted for the legislation. While Obama’s ad correctly states that McCain voted with Bush 95 percent of the time in 2007, his support for Bush’s position on legislation in 2005 was a low of 77 percent.

“Barack Obama today launched the first attack ad from either campaign in this election, which follows a string of calculating position changes proving that Barack Obama’s commitment to a new type of politics is officially over,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. “Even worse, Barack Obama actually voted for the Bush-Cheney energy bill and its big-oil tax breaks that he is attacking, so let’s end the pretense that Obama is anything other than a typical politician.”

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There is also a new Obama ad on energy. I’ll put it up as soon as I can find it.

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Der Spiegel has another update on Obama’s hopes for a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Barack Obama wants to hold a speech at the Brandenburg Gate when he comes to Berlin later this month. The city’s mayor wants to grant him his wish, but the German chancellor has misgivings.

The warning from the Chancellery was clear: The Brandenburg Gate is the “most famous and history-rich location in Germany,” a Chancellery source said on Monday. In the past, it has only been used on very special occasions for addresses by politicians, and when, then only by elected American presidents. More clearly stated: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would be better off looking for another location in the German capital to hold a speech.

But Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit appeared unimpressed by the warning from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office and said during a press conference on Tuesday that he would be pleased if Obama were to address the public at the Brandenburg Gate.

“We are not ruling anything out,” a spokesman for the Berlin city council told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “The Brandenburg Gate would certainly be a nice place.” The local government also pointed out that the decision over where Obama should make his appearance was in the hands of the city council of Berlin and not the chancellor’s office or the federal government.

In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, an Obama adviser confirmed that the Brandenburg Gate would be the Democratic candidate’s top choice for the location of a speech on trans-Atlantic relations. (more…) It would be a “simply great” backdrop, the adviser said. After all, the source added, John F. Kennedy’s famous appearance outside the Schöneberg Town Hall in 1963 was still very much alive in people’s memories.

Some suspect Mayor Wowereit’s remarks may be self-serving. Jürgen Trittin, deputy floor leader of The Green Party in the German parliament, predicted that Obama would end up speaking at the Brandenburg Gate. “Do you think that Wowereit would miss the chance to appear alongside Barack Obama,” he asked an interviewer on the German news channel N24. “I believe Wowereit is thinking: ‘He should appear, I will come into the picture and everything will be great’.”

Here is the issue, Chancellor Merkel leads a very popular German government and she is a member of the conservative CDU party. Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit is a member of the very unpopular SDP party that is polling under 20%. The mayor wants to tap into Obama’s popularity to lift his own.

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She left Colombia within 48 hours of being freed and she has no plans to return. She has declined to march on July 20th, Colombia’s Independence Day, in a march against the FARC. She raised eyebrows when she declared that she wants to serve her country but be buried in France. In Colombia upon her liberation by the Colombian Armed Forces, she praised Uribe and his approach towards the FARC. Now in France, she sings a different tune. She tells Uribe to tone down his rhetoric of “hate” towards the FARC. Calling them “terrorists” is hateful? They are terrorists. She thinks that Colombia is isolated in Latin America, frankly we know who our friends are. She blames the FARC for Uribe’s rise. Not quite sure what to make of that one. She praises France for pressing for her release. That publicity was likely a double edge sword. The international attention placed on you likely made you even more valuable to the FARC. Emails on Raul Reyes’ computer testify to the fact that FARC never intended to let you go free.

Do us a favour Ingrid, stay in France. You’re French, not Colombian. Quedate alla y dejenos en paz.

Here is a link to the interview in English with BBC World Service. Below the fold, an interview in Spanish with additional commentary. (more…)

What Every American Needs to Know (and Do) About FISA Before Tuesday, July 8th from Tim Ferriss on Vimeo

Today marks the start of the new FISA (Federal Information and Surveillance Act) regime. Your government can spy on you without cause and without a warrant. Tim Ferriss interviews Daniel Ellsberg, of the Pentagon Papers fame, on his thoughts on FISA.

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Brutal.

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Part One

Part Two

Pollster Douglas Schoen releases the results of an exclusive public opinion poll about the hopes and desires of American voters for the 2008 election. A 59 page powerpoint presentation is available for printing at Aspen Ideas Festival. Or you can follow along below:

| View | Upload your own

I strongly urge that you give the 12 minute presentation a full listening. The presentation was given on July 7, 2008.

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I have spent some time listening to Venezuelan television this past week as I aim to get a handle on how the collapse of the FARC is being received by el Comandante Hugo Chávez Frías. Without a doubt, Chávez is a big loser in the liberation of Ingrid Betancourt, the three Americans and the 11 others. On the one hand, he has lost the opportunity to play the hero and on the other hand, the FARC has hardly responded to his calls to free all the kidnapped victims. Moreover, Venezuela’s President seems ever more isolated in Latin America. Thus he has struck out in new directions. I was surprised to learn two things. First, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has visited Caracas five times since becoming President in August 2005. Second, since March 2007, Iran Air has had a weekly flight from Tehran to Caracas via Damascus. In October 2007, Conviasa, the Venezuelan state-owned airline, started its own Caracas to Tehran via Damascus route. I am guessing there is a connecting flight to Pyongyang.

Here’s an Iranian news report from October 2007 annoucing the Caracas-Damascus-Tehran flights.

The first Caracas-Tehran flight landed in Mehrabad International Airport late Sunday, managing director of Iran Air Public Relations said.

According to Fars news agency, Shahrokh Noushabadi stated that Venezuela’s state airline Conviasa began flights to Iran, with a stopover in Syria, on Sunday with the aim of strengthening commercial relations among the three states.

“Conviasa will initially operate just one flight a week but it eventually hopes to increase this to twice weekly,“ he said.

In March, Iran’s national flag carrier started operating flights to Venezuela, also via Damascus, in what a Syrian official said was a move to do away with all the ’harassment’ that Muslim travelers allegedly encounter in a post-September 11 world. Iran and Venezuela are member states of the Chicago-based Convention on International Civil Aviation signed in 1944.

In a related development, Iran will soon build ten dairy factories in the Latin American country. Iran and Venezuela have reached an agreement on constructing the factories at a cost of three million dollars. Base on the contract, Iran’s Sut Machine Company is obliged to construct the factories in various Venezuelan cities.

“The company has built four dairy factories in this Latin American country so far,“ head of Sut Machine Company said, adding four more factories are under construction in the country.

“The Islamic Republic would also transfer know-how to Venezuela experts in building the factories,“ Gholamhussein Mohammadzadeh stated.

Tehran and Caracas have already signed 152 documents and agreements on cooperation. The two sides inked 11 documents during a recent visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Latin America which included Venezuela. The agreements mainly include cooperation in the fields of energy and oil, light and heavy industries, mining, agriculture and animal husbandry. Venezuela is a strategic partner of Iran and among the most influential countries in Latin America. It has expanded relations with Iran in the past seven years in all fields.

What is even more astounding is that Conviasa serves just six international destinations: Port of Spain, Grenada, Dominica, and St. Vincent plus now Damascus and Tehran. Venezuela does have another airline, Aeropostal, which is privately held. Aeropostal flies to Madrid, Miami, La Habana, Port of Spain, Aruba, Curaçao, Lima, Guayquil, Quito and Bogotá.

What games are Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez playing?

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The pliant media is fast becoming a distant memory. Well perhaps the print media because I cannot say that I paying any attention to the cable channels. I am sure Olbermann et al continue their rah-rah-rah for Obama at full pace.

The Los Angeles Times, however, is not. It is looking at Obama and his policy proposals and taking him to task over how he is going to pay for them.

In more than a year of campaigning, Barack Obama has made a long list of promises for new federal programs costing tens of billions of dollars, many of them aimed at protecting people from the pain of a souring economy.

But if he wins the presidency, Obama will be hard-pressed to keep his blueprint intact. A variety of budget analysts are skeptical that the Democrat’s agenda could survive in the face of large federal budget deficits and the difficulty of making good on his plan to raise new revenue by closing tax loopholes, ending the Iraq war and cutting spending that is deemed low-priority.

(more…)

To Obama, all the world is a stage, hence a stadium in Denver or the Bradenburg Gate seem fitting backdrops to his delusions of grandeur. Misantrophic is the word that comes to mind. Contemptous is another. However, the Germans do not seem to be willing to play his games.

Via Germany’s Der Spiegel:

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama is expected to visit Germany and Berlin in just two weeks time. But officials with Angela Merkel’s Chancellery are reserved about the prospects of a speech at the famous Brandenburg Gate.

United States presidential candidate Barack Obama is planning to visit Berlin in two weeks. “The date appears to be set for July 24,” a German government source told SPIEGEL ONLINE. Both German Chancellor Angela Merkel of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the Social Democrats (SPD) are expected to hold talks in the German capital with Obama.

“They want to get better acquainted with him,” the source said.

However, the source, who asked not to be named, was reserved about the prospects of Obama holding a speech before the Brandenburg Gate.”

“The Brandenburg Gate is the most famous and history-rich site in Germany,” the Chancellery source said. In the past, the location has only been used on very special occasions for political speeches by world leaders. And it has been reserved for use only by elected American presidents, not candidates. The decision on whether the Democrat can speak at the location ultimately lies with the Berlin state government. Chancellery officials are concerned that the Brandenburg Gate could be turned into an “arbitrary stage” that other campaigns could also seek to use in the future.

It’s a traditional practice for US presidential candidates to visit Germany before the election. However, the source pointed out that agreements can only be made with elected presidents. The source also noted that a the German federal government would also be equally pleased to play host to a visit by Republican candidate John McCain. The door is just as open for him, the source said.

Nuremberg is probably a better fit any way.

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