I so much WISH Obama was a liberal or even a progressive......only reason I voted for him was because the alternative was SO MUCH worse.

But you can't blame Obama for the "crisis governing" that is occuring in DC these days!

Actually, a good deal of blame can be squarely placed on Obama's head. If it wasn't for his continual caving and bad negotiating, Republicans would be much more hesitant to do what they're doing. But they know President Pushover will cave. All they have to do is wait.

Obama is not a progressive.. The only reason I voted for him is simply because he was the lesser of two evils, plain and simple. It was either vote for him or vote for the Lunatic Fringe of the republican party.

The plutocrats who want to turn this country into another Banana Republic !.

That was the choice in voting for Mitt Romney...

I know Obama wants to attach the chained C.P.I. to Social Security and the U.S. Tax code. it's only a matter of John Boehner giving him another 500 billion in revenues. That is all it will take and then he will screw the elderly, the middle class and the poor. And in return he will cost Harry Reid his job as majority leader in the Senate in 2014. Not that Harry Reid has been a great leader, I would say he has been mediocre at best.

We need to take a serious look at what the tea party is doing in regards to primaries, maybe if we primary a couple of these so called Liberal democrats then we will get their attention.

Shades of Bush? The right called G.W. a liberal or at best a "centrist". They of course consider Reagan to have been too liberal for today's conservative.

Obam has indeed bent over backwards to get things done. Considering that he has proven that republicans will vote against their own proposals if he supports them , I find it disturbing that anyone thinks he went to far right. No he merely put the good of the country above partisan BS.

Thank you though for reminding us that there are far left as far out as the far right.

Because then it has to be TRUCKED to the ports. The pipeline is cheaper.

Montana has three aging refineries, 2 in Billings, 1 in Laurel - who's going to spend the money to build a new refinery up there?

It also takes massive amounts of water to refine Tar Sand Oil. The water is so contaminated when done, it must be stored in under ground concrete bunkers.

Yeah and Texas is willing to impose fewer regulations on how that toxic soup is disposed of, just like they waved through permits for nuclear waste storage for one of Perry's buddies.

And it is not a pipeline to Nebraska; it is a pipeline to the existing pipeline system that currently runs from Nebraska to the Gulf Coast.

Actually, stock markets tend to reward profits. Now, if a company is fat and inefficient, then job cuts get rewarded. If a company is lean, then cutting jobs reduces output, and thus profits.

Re: #5.1

"Stock markets tend to reward profits." Correct

".. if a company is fat and inefficient, then job cuts get rewarded." Correct - if having too many workers is what makes the company fat and inefficient. If that isn't the problem, then cutting jobs does not solve the problem - only makes things potentially more inefficient.

" If a company is lean, then cutting jobs reduces output, and thus profits." Huh? If a company is lean and making a profit - from this I assume the products and/or services are being sold to customers - why would a company cut jobs and reduce output?

Business only add jobs when the workers they have can no longer keep up with the demand for products and/or services.

Rusty,

Unfortunately, research divisions are often viewed as 'inefficient' and cut in order to get a temporary boost in profits. This is especially true in the petrochemical industry, where the lag time between research and productivity increase is long.

The result is situations where we drill for oil and pump oil over vast differences with no idea how to deal with the inevitable spills that accompany the development. Or how quickly the oil from that particular field will corrode the pipe. Or how to formulate a oxy-additive that is non-toxic, inexpensive, and not made from food. Or...etc.

Why reduce profits for this quarter for something that may not happen this year?

Yep, every business has to manage cash flow. Ask Circuit City. Or lots of others. During tight times, it's natural to cut back on any activity that doesn't go directly to the bottom line. But, a well run company tends to minimize R&D disruptions as much as possible, and a very well run company looks to the long-term. But... Circuit City was such a company until it forgot about the short term.

I suppose you would be more attracted to the Willard type.

Great thing? Er... If you JUST count launching some programs to help the poorest using oil funds without any transparency whatsoever, that may just be it. I do not know of anything else he did well. Except maybe for his anti-Bush rants. That's for the anti-Bush crowd. Apart from that, please light my lantern on all the untold good he did for the country of Venezuela.

Venezuela has a long history of being run by and for the benefit of a small group of elites. The oil wealth of the country was being squandered long before Mr. Chavez gained power -- it was just squandered on a different class of people.

Let us all hope that between the lack of a charismatic socialist and continued mass disgust for the traditional oligarchs Venezuela will manage to elect a leader capable of cleaning up the government.