State of the Union: Terrifying. But at Least He's Honest Here

From tonight's State of the Union address, with responses:

"We have a supply of natural gas that can last America nearly one hundred years, [There is nothing else to call this but what it is: a blatant lie. It might as well be a propaganda piece put out by Chesapeake Energy or some other fossil-fuel pushing, environmentally damaging megamillion-dollar corporation, but from the president of the United States in his 2012 State of the Union address, it is a mockery of environmental or democratic or even fiscal responsibility. There is no scientific consensus on this -- not even REMOTELY. This is completely irresponsible. Other scientists (not industry-supported] say only a few YEARS of 'natural' gas is available and extractiable in the 49 states, including Alaska but excluding Hawaii] and my Administration will take every possible action to safely develop this energy.

[To anyone who is paying attention, it is crystal clear that this energy source can NOT BE DEVELOPED SAFELY. We will ALL PAY an impossibly HIGH PRICE FOR SUCH DEVELOPMENT]

Experts believe [ONLY PAID INDUSTRY EXPERTS "BELIEVE" THIS, Mr. President. How outrageously pro-fossil-fuel-corporate interests can you be? What kind of payoffs are your speechwriters getting from industry? This is a beyond outrageous claim!] this will support more than 600,000 jobs [that's patently absurd, completely unsupported] by the end of the decade [there is absolutely NO credible evidence of this;' the only three peer-reviewed economic studies that have been done on the subject -- Barth, Rogers, Christopherson -- find something completely different -- that jobs are few and very short-term and NOT going to locals in the regions to which these jobs are promised but instead to "roughnecks" and other outsiders, generally from the Canadian oilfields, Louisiana, Texas, or Oklahoma].

And I’m requiring all companies that drill for gas on public lands to disclose the chemicals they use. [WOW, HOW BIG OF YOU, Mr. President! YOU'RE REQUIRING COMPANIES TO DISCLOSE THE POISONS WITH WHICH THEY ARE POISONING US! THANKS SO MUCH!] America will develop this resource without putting the health and safety of our citizens at risk. [HOW DARE YOU lie to us who are suffering the ills of this disgusting corporate-industrial abomination known as FRACKING? HOW DARE YOU be so cavalier when talking about our health, our homes, our children's lives, our very way of life, our FUTURE! This is outrageously irresponsible and shows you are embedded with fossil-fuel corporations. No matter WHAT good you might have done/want to do, your outrageously corporate-embedded behavior on FRACKING and complete disregard for CLIMATE CHANGE make any support I might have offered you AN IMPOSSIBILITY.]

"The development of natural gas will create jobs and power trucks and factories that are cleaner and cheaper, proving that we don’t have to choose between our environment and our economy. And by the way, it was public research dollars, over the course of thirty years, that helped develop the technologies to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock -- reminding us that Government support is critical in helping businesses get new energy ideas off the ground."

But, lest we despair, the president is firmly committed to a regulatory system that really works:

"We've all paid the price for lenders who sold mortgages to people who couldn't afford them, and buyers who knew they couldn't afford them. That’s why we need smart regulations to prevent irresponsible behavior. Rules to prevent financial fraud, or toxic dumping, or faulty medical devices, don't destroy the free market. They make the free market work better.

"There is no question that some regulations are outdated, unnecessary, or too costly. In fact, I’ve approved fewer regulations in the first three years of my presidency than my Republican predecessor did in his. I’ve ordered every federal agency to eliminate rules that don’t make sense. We've already announced over 500 reforms, and just a fraction of them will save business and citizens more than $10 billion over the next five years. . . . I will not back down from making sure an oil company can contain the kind of oil spill we saw in the Gulf two years ago. I will not back down from protecting our kids from mercury pollution, or making sure that our food is safe and our water is clean. I will not go back to the days when health insurance companies had unchecked power to cancel your policy, deny you coverage, or charge women differently from men.

"And I will not go back to the days when Wall Street was allowed to play by its own set of rules. . . . "

Whew! What a relief, Mr. President! Thank you soooooooo much!

For those of you who still believed Barack Obama was a decent human being who would stand up for the rights, health, and well-being of regular people versus corporate interests, I offer you my sympathies. I urge you to get active now that you realize there's nobody but you and the grassroots looking out for your interests.

Tbose who hoped Obama would eventually see the light have got to rethink. And we cannot simply say that "He's the best we've got, so let's support him."

I am feeling that I will put my energies behind STOPPING a presidential candidate who aligns so blatantly with Big Oil Big Gas Big Corporate Interests to the detriment of We the People. The corrupted U.S. two-party political system is bankrupt and spent. Perhaps you'll want to put your efforts elsewhere, my friends.