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Friedman: 'Drill, drill, drill" like demanding IBM Selectric amid the PC revolution

post #1 of 14
9/8/08 at 10:10am
Thread Starter 
Sometimes a sensible analysis comes from the unlikeliest of places:

Quote:
Friedman on ‘drill, drill, drill’: It’s like someone chanting ‘IBM Selectric typewriters’ during the IT revolution.»

On NBC’s Meet The Press this morning, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman criticized the chanting of “drill, drill, drill” and “drill, baby, drill” at the Republican National Convention last week, saying that’s just what Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Nigeria want to hear Americans focusing on. “They’d be up there leading the chant. They would be saying, ‘this is great, America isn’t sitting there saying, invent, invent, invent new renewable energy,’” said Friedman. Friedman added that he isn’t opposed to offshore drilling, but we shouldn’t be “making that the center focus”:

FRIEDMAN: I’m actually not against drilling. What I’m against is making that the center of our focus because we are on the eve of a new revolution, the energy technology revolution. It would be, Tom, as if on the eve of the IT revolution, the revolution of PCs and the internet, someone was up there standing and demanding, “IBM Selectric typewriters, IBM Selectric typewriters.” That’s what “drill, drill, drill” is the equivalent of today.
Link to story and youtube here.
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post #2 of 14
9/8/08 at 10:38am
Full-disclosure; I really can't stand Friedman. He's supposed to be a Middle East expert, and he completely misjudged the Iraq War. Of course, lots of people did, but this is one of his supposedly areas of expertise, and he brought nothing to the table.

He's also supposed to be an expert on globalization, yet his book "The Earth is Flat" is not a serious tome on free trade and rather seems like a way to show everybody how much he knows about technology (a subject that is out of his league).

This quote follows the same, "I'm a technology expert, lets not sounds like cavemen to the rest of the world", but it's just hype. Both campaigns are supposedly focusing on "alternative energy", with one making an emphasis on additional drilling, but both campaigns recognize that we have to get out of our dependence of oil.
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post #3 of 14
9/8/08 at 10:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ElCapitanAmerica View Post
Both campaigns are supposedly focusing on "alternative energy", with one making an emphasis on additional drilling, but both campaigns recognize that we have to get out of our dependence of oil.
If you really think McCain's plan to invest $300 million (we spend that much in Iraq in one day) in battery tech is enough, then you're not really paying attention. The notion that Obama and McCain are on par on this issue is laughable.
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post #4 of 14
9/8/08 at 11:06am
He's only committed $300 mill for alt. energy?
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post #5 of 14
9/8/08 at 12:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ElCapitanAmerica View Post
He's only committed $300 mill for alt. energy?
That's the only thing in his plan that has a price tag that I've read, besides the corporate tax cuts and drilling. Take that for what you will, but when McCain talks alt energy, I don't think it's much more than lip service.
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post #6 of 14
9/8/08 at 12:47pm
His plan has a little bit more than his X-prize stunt for battery technology, I mean c'mon. He has 2 billion in there for clean coal if you want to look for price tags.

Anyways, a more fair assessment of both plans:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10031450-54.html
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post #7 of 14
9/8/08 at 12:54pm
Okay, it's still not enough though. Clean coal is not an end solution. It's still a fossil fuel.
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post #8 of 14
9/8/08 at 1:08pm
Thread Starter 
ElCap, you know only one side actually means it.

McCain has said he wants to built 75 nuclear power plants. Nuclear power requires huge amounts of cold water (a resource that is currently deeply in trouble) and cost millions to build without proven stability/efficiency. Yet he wants to build 75 of them. And he has voted consistently against alternate energy.

And now there's Palin, who is the oil industry's ace in the hole.

If you want to split hairs you have two choices if you're interested in entering the 21st century in terms of energy, but the reality is that there is only one choice for that.

ps. I'm not a fan of Friedman either but any time someone points out that there's a big elephant in the room, it gets my attention.
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post #9 of 14
9/8/08 at 1:11pm
I'm very pro nuclear energy (we should have done this ages ago), will have to read over the cold water restrictions (not familiar with them at all).
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post #10 of 14
9/8/08 at 1:21pm
Thread Starter 
Check out what's happening in France right now, which is heavily pro-nuclear energy. When the weather gets warmer (which catastrophic climate change ensures globally), they're having serious problems with their reactors. Of course you won't find this reported in the US media for the most part, just "rah rah" celebrations of France's commitment to nuclear power, but check out this NPR report on the subject.
Quote:
Morning Edition, August 21, 2007 · France gets 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power. Once a nuclear plant is built and running, the power station doesn't emit greenhouse gases. But as summers in Europe get hotter, an unexpected hitch has emerged. Many French reactors have had trouble operating during hot spells.
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post #11 of 14
9/8/08 at 1:31pm
Not to pile on Cap, but it was unnerving that multiple times at the RNC, the crowds chanted "Drill, Baby, Drill". Ignoring just the environmental harm that comes from such actions, drilling isn't even a short-term solution. McCain himself has conceded that any relief from offshore drilling would be more psychological than economic. Then again, when your former chief economic adviser thinks we're in a "mental recession", than the power of positive thinking is just as good a real policy.
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post #12 of 14
9/8/08 at 1:34pm
The "drill, baby drill" phenomenon is so weird. The biggest applause line McCain got was for drilling. Is this just because they know it will piss off liberals? Or, even weirder, is it the conservative's Freudian issues? "I don't want my country powered by big, vaginal receptors of sunlight and wind! Let's drive some huge, phallic drills deep into the ground, so we can feel like real men when we fill up our trucks!"

Or does it come back down to Republicans thinking that environmental issues are at best frivolous concerns, if not a phony, invented crisis? "We got $4 gas, because these tree-huggers are more concerned about polar bears than about working people?"
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post #13 of 14
9/8/08 at 1:38pm
Thread Starter 
I think Republicans and the corporate media have successfully conveyed that drilling will bring down gas prices and divorce us from foreign sources of oil. Even though it won't. But that's the way things work in today's America. If it benefits big business, it gets easily framed in a way that benefits the masses (even though it doesn't and never will).
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post #14 of 14
9/11/08 at 5:16pm
Anyone willing to listen to Thomas Friedman for an extended period of time should download the Fresh Air podcast with him in it. He seems to blame Republicans for rejecting alt energy out of purely partisan purposes. Also, slams McCain for skipping the alternative energy bill vote 8 times. That last time, the bill lost by one vote. When I hear shit like this, it makes me completely mistrust McCain on this issue.
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