Tag Archives: Barack Obama

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Here comes the sun … power

President Obama has decided to crack down on carbon dioxide emissions produced by power-generating plants.

He has implemented federal environmental rules requiring a 30 percent reduction in emissions by 2030. Is the president the enemy of the coal industry, which produces a lot of energy to fuel these plants? Not according to Bloomberg View, which reports that the solar industry is the biggest threat to the fossil fuel industry.

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-06-04/obama-isn-t-killing-power-plants-the-sun-is

I’ve read the article attached here and it brings to mind something I’ve wondered for almost the entire time I’ve lived in West Texas: Why isn’t solar energy more prevalent here?

I think I know one reason: natural gas. We have lots of natural gas here and it remains a large employer and is quite important to the electricity-generation grid. There’s little incentive, therefore, to move away from natural gas.

West Texas is producing a lot more wind energy now than when we moved here in early 1995. Indeed, Texas and California are the two top alternative-energy producing states in the country — a fact that I’m sure drives the governors of both states, Democrat Jerry Brown of California and Republican Rick Perry of Texas stark-raving mad.

West Texas also has a large amount of sunshine. The Panhandle has more than 300 days of sunshine annually. We can erect a lot of solar panels on new home construction here and have them heat and cool houses while using less fossil fuel that has limits on its supply.

As Carl Pope, a Sierra Club activist, writes for Bloomberg View: “Solar panels — whether utility scale or residential rooftop — generate maximum power on exactly those hot afternoons when demand peaks. What’s more, they do so at no marginal cost; the sun is free. This reduces reliance on peakers, causing prices to fall across the board, including for customers without solar power.”

It’s an interesting concept that ought to find its way to West Texas … eventually.

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Headlines keep changing rapidly

It occurs to me that our collective attention keeps getting diverted from crisis to crisis — and few of us talk openly about the crisis that passes from our view.

* Remember the Syrian civil war? We were going to bomb Syria for using chemical weapons on civilians. Then we backed off. The Russians entered the picture and helped broker a deal to get rid of the weapons.

* A Boeing 777 disappeared en route from Malaysia to China. It apparently crashed somewhere in the Indian Ocean. Search teams from several countries are looking for the wreckage that contains 239 passengers and crew. To date, nothing’s been found.

* Then came Ukraine. The Russians entered the picture there, too. Ukraine ousted its pro-Russian president, who fled to Russia. The Russians essentially annexed Crimea, moved a lot of troops to the Ukraine border, then backed off after the Ukrainians elected a news president who is acceptable to Moscow.

* A Nigerian terrorist group — Boko Haram — kidnapped about 300 girls and is holding them captive somewhere. World opinion erupted and the demands came out for the international community to do all it can to rescue those young women.

* Americans got caught up in the Benghazi story yet again. The House of Representatives formed a select committee to examine the Benghazi attack one more time. Maybe we’ll see the end of this probe. Then again, maybe not until after the 2016 presidential election that’s likely to feature one Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was secretary of state when the U.S. consulate was attacked in September 2012.

* The Veterans Administration took the headlines away from Benghazi with reports of veterans dying while awaiting health care in Arizona. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned and a thorough review is under way to find a cure for what ails the massive federal agency.

* Taliban militants released Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl and the questions about his release and the terms that brought it about have created the latest headline grabber.

These sequences keep building on themselves. Our attention is riveted on these storied and then it’s diverted from one “crisis of the moment” to the next one.

Is it any wonder why Barack Obama’s hair has gotten so gray?

Hey, what’s happening with Syria these days?

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What if we'd left Bergdahl behind?

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As the feeding frenzy continues over the release of a one-time prisoner of war in Afghanistan, a lot of key questions have arisen.

I’ve covered some of them already in this blog. Another one has popped up.

What would the reaction have been had the United States — knowing the history of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s views on the Afghan War and perhaps suspecting he had left his post, as has been alleged — left him behind?

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/208213-reid-charges-gop-with-hypocrisy-on-bergdahl

The demands for answers have been loud, clear and largely justified.

Bergdahl was released by his Taliban captors after he’d been held for five years. In exchange, we released five high-ranking Taliban thugs from Gitmo on the condition they be restricted from traveling out of Qatar for a year. After that, well, it’s anyone’s guess, I suppose.

Bergdahl reportedly opposed our Afghan War effort. He said so in emails back home. Those views allegedly were known by the Army. We went after him anyway. President Obama said Americans “don’t leave soldiers behind” in war.

What we gave up to get him and the allegations that he “deserted” his comrades have raised a huge uproar.

Some of my very own friends here in the Texas Panhandle have called Bergdahl a traitor. They want him punished, thinking they know all the facts already. One fellow even said we ought to send him back to his captors.

Whatever.

Still, the question remains: What would be the tone of the criticism if we’d turned our backs on a soldier who some Americans already believe committed an act of treason? Would those people who today are critical of the recovery effort applaud an abandonment?

My strong suspicion is that they would be screaming themselves hoarse at the notion that the United States actually would leave one of our warriors behind, in the hands of a ruthless enemy.

Perhaps that takes us directly into the excruciating decision made at the White House, the Pentagon, the CIA, the National Security Council and the Oval Office itself.

It hardly, therefore, seems fair for peanut-gallery pundits to draw premature conclusions about a delicate matter about which they know next to nothing.

Yes, there are many questions to answer. How about first getting those answers?

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Here comes 'impeachment' talk

Wait for it. Here it comes. Are you ready for it?

Some talking heads in both the left- and right-wing media are talking about impeachment as it regards the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Oh … brother.

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/208264-gop-senator-obama-faces-impeachment-push-if-more-prisoners-leave-gitmo

Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — who knows a thing or two about impeaching a president of the United States — now warns that President Obama could face impeachment if he releases any more prisoners from Guantanamo Bay without consulting first with Congress.

The United States turned over five Taliban detainees in exchange for Bergdahl. The exchange reportedly took place without the White House advising Congress of it in advance, under federal law. Republicans are outraged — outraged, I tell you — that they weren’t so advised.

The White House has apologized for what it calls an “oversight.” That hasn’t stopped the uproar.

Sen. Graham — himself an Air Force reserve lawyer — once helped prosecute President Clinton during the 42nd president’s 1998 impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate. The Senate acquitted the president and Republicans ended up paying dearly for it politically at the next election.

Some left-wing media pundits — notably MSNBC’s Ed Schultz — believe Republicans are waiting for the results of this year’s mid-term election before commencing impeachment proceedings against Barack Obama. The idea, according to Schultz, is that the GOP could gain control of the Senate and tighten their grip on the House, particularly with tea party Republicans winning elections across the country.

I’m hoping Schultz is just hyperventilating and will calm down once he catches his breath.

We’ll need to get some answers to questions about Bergdahl’s release and, just as importantly, his capture five years ago. Was he AWOL? Did he abandon his post? If he did walk away, should the Army court-martial him? Let’s sort all that out first.

As for the release, the president and the Pentagon brass were determined not to leave an American behind once we leave the Afghanistan battlefield. Bowe Bergdahl was the lone U.S. service member being held captive. The brass felt it was worth it to exchange five Taliban officers for Bergdahl.

Did they do it by the book? That, too, remains to be determined definitively.

Good grief. Let’s can this impeachment talk until we get all the facts on the table.

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This just in: I'm going to live

Given that I posted a blog item a few days ago about my impending medical appointment at the Thomas Creek Veterans Medical Center in Amarillo, I thought I’d provide a brief — and detail-free — update.

The bottom line: I’m going to live a good bit longer, if everything stays the same for a while.

I mention all this only because of the controversy surrounding the Department of Veterans Affairs. The VA secretary, Eric Shinseki, has resigned. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wants the FBI to investigate the deaths of those 40 veterans in Phoenix. President Obama has all but said heads likely will roll as the investigation continues. VA medical centers across the country now are under the microscope — and I only can assume that includes the Creek medical center here in Amarillo.

No worries for yours truly. I was in and out in less than an hour. Got the lab work done. Visited with the nurse practitioner, who read me the results of the labs; all of ’em look good.

I was out the door and headed for the house.

Oh, how I hope the Creek center isn’t producing the hideously long wait times discovered at other VA-run hospitals.

So far, barely a year into my VA medical enrollment, I cannot complain one teeny-tiny bit about the care I’ve received.

Let’s hope it stays that way.

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Benghazi = Birtherism

It’s beginning to sound, to me at least, that the Benghazi story is going to stay in the news through the 2016 election cycle.

After the election, it will disappear.

http://mediamatters.org/video/2014/06/01/fox-panel-laughs-at-laura-ingrahams-unrelenting/199529

Why then? It’s becoming clearer by the week that right wing think tanks, media outlets and politicians want to keep the issue roiling as long as former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is in the hunt for the presidency during the next two years.

If she decides to run, which most folks think is a given, it will continue to be a discussion topic right up to Election Day. Then we’ll have the result. She’ll either be elected or defeated by a Republican; I’m assuming, of course, that she’ll be the Democratic nominee for president.

After that, the issue goes away. Quietly. Suddenly. Just disappears.

It kinda/sorta reminds me of the birtherism issue that dogged Barack Obama through two election cycles. There were those on the right who questioned whether he was constitutionally qualified to serve as president, alleging he was born in Kenya, rather than Hawaii.

We all heard the yammering, yes? Forget that we’ve heard very little from the left on the issue regarding another possible presidential candidate, Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who actually was born in Canada. Mama Cruz is an American, however, which makes him a U.S. citizen.

Hey, wait a minute. Wasn’t President Obama’s mother an American, too, which made him qualified to serve as president — even if he had been born in a foreign country?

Whatever. The birthers stopped their preposterous notion the moment he was re-elected in 2012.

I’m betting the same thing will happen with this Benghazi matter, no matter the outcome of the House select panel’s investigation into that horrible Sept. 11, 2012 fire fight that killed four Americans at the consulate in Libya.

These “scandals” do have a way of materializing — and vaporizing — at politically opportune times.

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Ex-POW begins long journey home

U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is coming home.

After five years in captivity at the hands of Taliban terrorists, Bergdahl is coming home to Hailey, Idaho. He’ll get there in due course, probably soon.

However, based on what the world heard today, his journey back to what he used to know as “home” will require much patience and as much perseverance as the soldier and his family demonstrated in trying to get him released.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/us/only-american-pow-from-afghan-war-is-freed.html?_r=2

In a brief ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, with President Obama standing with them, Bowe’s parents — Bob and Jani Bergdahl — asked for the media to give them some privacy and distance.

Their son, it is believed, might have trouble relearning the English language, as he had been held captive by Taliban fighters who spoke only their own tribal dialect. Indeed, Bob Bergdahl today uttered a few sentences to his son in some dialect, hoping his son would hear him.

The release is part of an exchange with five Taliban guerrillas being held at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay. The Taliban prisoners are being turned over to officials in Qatar, who helped broker the deal. They’re supposed to be under some sort of travel restriction, along with other security measures being taken to keep them on a short leash. It remains to be seen, of course, whether those restrictions will hold up. The men going back to the Middle East are known to be highly dangerous murderers.

As for Sgt. Bergdahl, a grateful nation will welcome him home as the only American POW from the Afghan War that is now winding down.

He need not be smothered, though, with our collective affection. As his parents indicated today, the young man has been through hell that no one else even can imagine. He needs a lot of space.

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House cleaning begins at VA

Eric Shinseki had to go.

Of that there was zero doubt. The decorated retired four-star Army general served his country with honor on the battlefield, but his new assignment — as secretary of veterans affairs — became too bloody a political battle for him to continue on.

He quit today.

Let the overhaul commence in earnest.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/05/barack-obama-to-talk-eric-shinseki-veterans-affairs-va-scandal-live-kelly-ripa-michael-strahan-107245.html?hp=lh_b2

Shinseki has left a department in absolute chaos. The VA has been scandalized by reports of veterans dying while awaiting health care and by allegations that staffers drafted bogus wait times to cover up their mistakes. This happened on Shinseki’s watch as a Cabinet secretary.

He had to quit.

The next veterans affairs secretary will inherit an agency that will have commenced a thorough top-to-bottom review. There needs to be an accounting of what happened, who did it and there ought to be criminal charges brought if it’s proven that their negligence resulted directly in the deaths of any of those estimated 40 veterans.

Every official in Washington — from President Obama down through the chain of command — keep saying they honor the service our veterans perform for the country. The VA health care system has let many of them down. The system has let down an entire country that has talked the talk, but failed to deliver on all those expressions of gratitude.

I am saddened that Gen. Shinseki has taken the hit on this one. However, someone has to be accountable. He came to office vowing to take care of our veterans. His agency hasn’t kept its promise.

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Kerrey can fix VA

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of bringing in a decorated former Navy SEAL to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs out of a major scandal.

Bob Kerrey’s name has been floated as a possible replacement for Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, whose days as head of the massive agency clearly are numbered.

Shinseki isn’t saying he’s going to quit. President Obama isn’t saying he’s going to fire the retired Army general and former Army chief of staff. The writing on the proverbial wall needs no translation: Shinseki cannot stay on.

The VA has been shown to be negligent — perhaps criminally so — in its treatment of veterans. There have been deaths because of too-lengthy wait times for health care, fabricated records and what’s been called a “systemic” breakdown all along the way.

Bob Kerrey is a former Democratic senator from Nebraska. He fought in Vietnam — as did Shinseki. The one-time naval officer received the Medal of Honor for valor and heroism and lost a leg on the battlefield.

Kerrey is a bona fide war hero with many friends still in the Senate. He would be confirmed almost unanimously.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is in dire need of an extreme makeover. No one near the top of the chain of command can do it. They’re all tainted now by what’s been revealed.

Some fresh ideas, new sharp vision and some kick-butt attitude are what’s needed at the troubled Cabinet agency.

Why not give Bob Kerrey a chance to repair the damage?

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Shinseki has to go

It pains me to say this about a decorated, heroic veteran of the U.S. Army, but it’s time for him to leave the office he holds.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki’s watch is now scarred indelibly by a scathing inspector general’s report that chronicles horrible health care services being provided for veterans.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/will-shinseki-go-its-when-not-if-n117341

The IG report confirms that Veterans Administration health officials cooked up fabricated wait times for veterans, who were found to be waiting about 115 days for health care — far longer than VA standards. The result has been the deaths of veterans at the Phoenix, Ariz., veterans hospital.

All this happened under Gen. Shinseki’s watch. He’s supposed to manage a monstrous federal agency. He hasn’t done it. Veterans have suffered. This shoddy performance has angered Democratic and Republican members of Congress alike. The calls for his resignation are mounting.

It’s time for him to step aside.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is in a shambles and there is no way possible for Shinseki to clean up the wreckage.

Who should get the call?

I heard an interesting name mentioned Wednesday. Former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., received the Medal of Honor for heroism during the Vietnam War. He lost a leg while fighting enemy soldiers as a Navy SEAL. Could someone with Sen. Kerrey’s credentials do the job? I believe he could.

President Obama has said two things about the mess at the VA: He stands by Shinseki and he vows to make changes if they’re deemed necessary. The IG report has been given credence by those who believe change is necessary at the top of the VA chain of command.

The president no longer can stand by his man.