#rsrh Barack Obama hates unions…

…at least, the ones that actually produce things.  My colleague has already written up the President’s threat to veto a payroll tax cut extension if the Republicans dare… attach a go-ahead on the critically important Keystone ethical oil pipeline; but I have a question for the rank-and-file construction/petroleum union workers who might like to, you know, get some work.

Not to be obnoxious or anything about this – I myself am the son of a proud union man and Truman Democrat – but have you guys considered that maybe your union leadership is using your dues money to promote candidates and causes that aren’t actually in your class interest?  I mean, the Republicans want you folks to work.  We’re trying to get you guys to work.  In an ideal world, you’d all be working right now on this pipeline.  It’s the Democrats who are giving some of you miserable Christmases.  Not us.

Just… think about it, OK?

#rsrh Big Labor: odd special interest group out on Keystone pipeline.

(H/T: @davidhauptmann) There’s a saying: If you’re playing poker and you haven’t figured out within the first half-hour who the sucker is, you’re the sucker.  Private sector union leadership is not quite yet at the point of realizing this: their comments and complaints about the White House’s decision to ‘delay’ the Keystone ethical oil pipeline give off the unmistakable aroma of what is really a quite shocking naivete.  Not to mention a darkly humorous naivete, as well: these poor people think that they matter.

But let me rip off the bandage.  Union leadership is going to stay solidly Democratic this election cycle, which means money is going to continue to flow to the Democrats.  That’s all that matters.  Luddite Greenies are significantly more shaky in their support this go-round: that makes them more important to this administration.  That is likewise the end of the story.  And since we already know that Obama’s planning to write off working class white voters, the question now becomes: why is anybody really surprised that this is happening? Continue reading #rsrh Big Labor: odd special interest group out on Keystone pipeline.

Scene from the Conflict Oil Wars: Austan Goolsbee v. the Naive Greens

Quick background: there’s a lot of oil in Canada. Quite a bit of it is tied up in the form of oil sands, which radical Greenies hate with the same passion that normal people reserve for ax murderers or child rapists. Despite this hatred, the Canadians have noticed that the price of oil makes oil sand development highly cost effective, which is why they were planning to build the Keystone Pipeline to ship the stuff from Canada to American refineries and distribution centers. This promised to make both America and Canada quite a bit of cash and make our energy costs significantly cheaper, which is why the Greenies successfully pressured President Obama to ‘temporarily’ delay the project.

Anyway: strictly speaking, it is not quite accurate to say that former White House Council of Economic Advisors Chair (and Obama mouthpiece) Austan Goolsbee called opponents of the proposed Keystone Pipeline “naive.” It’s more accurate to say that he called the idea of opposing it ‘naive’ – in fact, that’s pretty much explicitly what Goolsbee said: “It’s a bit naïve to think the tar sands would not be developed if they don’t build that pipeline.” And it is a bit naive, of course.

But then, opposing the pipeline is also homophobic.

And misogynistic.

And anti-Semitic.

Not to mention straight-up racist.

Commie-loving, too.

Continue reading Scene from the Conflict Oil Wars: Austan Goolsbee v. the Naive Greens

Ethical oil’s excellent enemies: Saudi Arabia & Think Progress.

Perfect together!

One of the nicest things about being a mainstream supporter of the Global War on Terror is that you are blessed, for a given value of ‘blessed,’ with a collection of the vilest, most despicable, most appalling domestic enemies in recent political history.  Nazis, Communists, Stalinists, Maoists, blackshirt anarchists, Jew-haters of various flavors, anti-human deep ecologists, anti-Israel conspiracy theorists… honestly, by the time that the antiwar movement was done they had managed to taint most of the groups out there that I casually despise, and virtually all of the progressive ones.  I’d like to pretend that this marvelous example of contagious karma isn’t really that big a deal, but honesty forces me to admit that the nasty, somewhat cognitively challenged nature of the Other Side was a powerful factor in keeping the antiwar folks firmly under the rocks that are in fact their native environment.

I mention this because it’s exciting to see this dynamic play out over in the ‘ethical oil’ arena as well. Continue reading Ethical oil’s excellent enemies: Saudi Arabia & Think Progress.