Brandon

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Miles of Oil and No Government Action in Sight!

Day 71 of the Gulf Oil Spill and the Gov. is AWOL!

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Mile's of oil slicks just like this and not a skimmer in sight. Why? Where is the U.S. government? Do we need to remind Obama that under federal law it is HIS primary responsibility to contain and clean up the spill?

Meanwhile, an extensive report from the New Orleans Times Picayune details how few skimming boats are working on the spill:
Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander for the oil spill, acknowledged recently that "Skimmers are our critical mass right now. We need to put those wherever we can get them. And we want to get them from wherever they are available."
...
According to the latest numbers from BP, 433 vessels are collecting oil in the Gulf, but less than a third of those are specialized boats designed specifically for oil skimming.

On the Senate floor last week, Sen. George LeMieux, R-Fla., pointed to a Coast Guard map detailing more than 850 skimmers available in the southeastern United States -- and more than 1,600 available in the continental United States.

...
The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 requires regions to have minimum levels of equipment such as boom and skimmers, making it difficult for every oil-fighting resource to be directed to the Gulf of Mexico.

Allen acknowledged the hurdle last week, saying that there are "discussions we're having across the entire country where we have equipment that's out there as a requirement -- legal requirement to cover spill response of those areas -- and how we might free those up. That's a work in progress inside the administration right now."
We have a Commander in Chief who is more interested in playing golf rather than cutting red tape and an Attorney General who spends his time threatening to sue Arizona and BP instead of working out the legal technicalities that would make more skimming help available. On Tuesday, there was an emergency rule change which may free up some skimming boats. But don't hold your breath. Besides, that rule change is so long overdue it's criminal.

And a French company offered skimmers soon after the disaster but were put on hold. Also from the Times Picayune article:
Vial of Ecoceane, the French oil spill response company, said the Jones Act and other difficulties getting through to BP prevented his company from putting boats to work sooner. He has boats that could work offshore, but also smaller models that would be best suited in shallower inland waters within the three-mile limit.

"We could have sent boats earlier, but we wanted to make sure that if we sent our boats, they could be used in the U.S., because of the Jones Act," Vial said in an interview translated from French.

In the end, he sold nine of the spill response boats to a Florida company last week, which made them American boats and circumvented the problems with the Jones Act.

And Shell Oil Company offered BP use of their mammoth 300 foot skimmer Nanuq but BP has still not accepted the offer.

Dutch skimming help was also rejected in part because of the Jone's Act but also because the boats would discharge a tiny percentage of oil back into the water even while picking up the vast majority. From the Financial Post:
Why does neither the U.S. government nor U.S. energy companies have on hand the cleanup technology available in Europe? Ironically, the superior European technology runs afoul of U.S. environmental rules. The voracious Dutch vessels, for example, continuously suck up vast quantities of oily water, extract most of the oil and then spit overboard vast quantities of nearly oil-free water. Nearly oil-free isn't good enough for the U.S. regulators, who have a standard of 15 parts per million -- if water isn't at least 99.9985% pure, it may not be returned to the Gulf of Mexico.
So instead of capturing nearly all of the oil and sparing beaches and wildlife, U.S. environmental regulations are causing mass destruction. Here again, an engaged Commander in Chief could put this situation right but either Obama is incompetent, or is unwilling to do so.

And then there is this:

“A Whale” – World’s Largest Oil Skimmer Waiting on EPA and Coast Guard Approval

A Taiwanese-owned, Liberian-flagged tanker, the A Whale, has been modified for skimming up to 500,000 barrels of oil-contaminated water a day. To put this in context, if the system works as intended, it could skim in less than two days an amount of oil equal to all the oil skimmed in the past 7o days of the ongoing Deepwater Horizon spill. The A Whale is designed to operate offshore where most skimmers have difficulty operating. It is currently in Norfolk, VA awaiting approval of separate waivers from the Coast Guard and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to allow it to begin testing. Because the A Whale would be operating well offshore it is not believed to require a Jones Act Waiver.
Obama called the fight against this oil spill a "war." But it seems to be a war in which we are fighting with one hand tied behind our backs and one foot stuck in a bucket of cement. If this is how Obama fights a war, no wonder we are having so much trouble in Afghanistan!

Monday, June 28, 2010

Obama Puts Up Signs Warning of Dangerous Border

Does he take the problem of border security seriously?

In his June 3rd meeting with Arizona Governor Brewer President Obama promised he would send White House officials to Arizona within two weeks to see what help could be offered in the border security emergency. That long overdue meeting was finally held Monday, June 28, and Governor Brewer was underwhelmed. Out of only 1200 National Guard troops Obama authorized be made available for border security only 524 will be available at the peak of deployment for only a few months in Arizona.

Needless to say, Arizona Governor Brewer was "disappointed" with the White House response.

Brewer also released the following video further highlighting the problem. Signs less than 30 miles from the State Capitol warn citizens of danger in border region:

No doubt Obama will claim the money spent on signs was responsible for creating dozens of new jobs. Perhaps he can solve the entire unemployment problem by posting signs throughout the nation: "Warning. Incompetent Obama Administration is unable and unwilling to deal with the problem of governing!"

VP Biden: All You Little People are Just "Smart Asses!"

Don't tell "Tax and Spend" Joe to lower your taxes!

VP Biden walks into a frozen custard shop in Wisconsin Friday. Full story in the L.A. Times Top of the Ticket blog:

After Biden gets his custard, he asks the store manager how much he owes him.

“Lower our taxes and we’ll call it even,” the manager replied.

Biden didn’t acknowledge that. Refusing to even look at him, Biden turned and....

...walked away from the manager, appearing to just blow him off.

It’s odd that Biden didn’t have something to say because politicians get hit on this all the time. Republican or Democrat, people always tell elected officials they want their taxes lowered.

You would expect a “God love ya, we’re doin’ everything we can to get the economy jump-started again.”

A few minutes later, Biden is caught on video again telling the manager: “Why don’t you say something nice instead of being a smartass all the time? Say something nice.”

The manager went on to tell a local TV reporter that the vice president went up to him later and whispered that he was just joking. The manager also said, however, it didn’t appear to him that Biden appreciated the comment.

That’s self-evident. You can pick that up in Biden’s body language.

Biden's latest gaffe is yet another revealing insight into the character of those at the top of the Democrat Party. It's how they treat the average, working American in unscripted moments that shows who and what they really are. It's a disdain for the common man; a theme Obama has also echoed in unguarded moments when he referred to voters who cling to guns and religion [video].

The lesson here: Elitists like Biden, Obama and the Democrat hierarchy expect to rule over us without complaint or hindrance. Shut up and do as you are told!

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Obama: Odd Man Out in Economic Summit!

Our allies are moving to cut spending and debt at the same time Obama urges them to party on!

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President Barack Obama, right, stands beside French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other G8 Leaders during a family photo with African Outreach Leaders during the G8 Summit at the Deerhurst Resort in Hunstville, Ontario, Canada, Friday, June 25, 2010.

With U.S. Gross Domestic Product being revised significantly downward and our high unemployment rate well above that of our nearest neighbor Canada, you would think Obama might listen to how our friends and allies are responding to the global economic crisis. But it seems that just as he endlessly lectures Americans, he is in Toronto lecturing our friends on a subject where it might be better if he said nothing and listened.

The New American puts it so well:

Obama Odd Man Out at Summit
by Bruce Walker
Friday, 25 June 2010

Barack Obama arrived on Friday in Toronto for the G-8 and G-20 economic summits. This summit comes amid an unprecedented explosion of red ink in America from an approach to sluggish economies that Obama is recommending to other industrial nations.

Other nations, notably Germany, Japan, Britain, and France, intend to move in the other direction, reducing their government deficits by reducing expenditures. Two years ago the leaders of these nations supported “pump priming” as a solution to the financial crisis caused by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a giant American investment bank. Now these leaders believe that more government spending will make things worse.

Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada and host of the summit, supports governments committing to reducing deficits. He has noted that the Greek debt crisis was caused by fiscal irresponsibility. Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has said that “One size doesn’t fit all,” in response to Obama’s opinion that all governments should work in concert on debt reduction.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel seems particularly annoyed with Obama’s lecturing other world leaders. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Merkel said: “German exports successes reflect the high competitiveness and innovation strength of our companies. Artificially reducing Germany’s competitive [advantage] would be of no use to anyone.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron, unhappy with Obama’s use of British Petroleum as a scapegoat for his failure to contain the Gulf oil spill, must also be wondering if Obama is really committed to improve the productivity of business or simply warring on private enterprise, whatever the economic costs. Cameron is also seeking fairly deep cuts in British government spending, and hearing an American President criticize his government’s actions must seem unnecessarily hostile.

Obama, indeed, seems to be the odd man out at this summit. Europe watches with deep concern as Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, and Iceland face meltdowns because of financial irresponsibility. The leaders of the major nations in Europe face popular unrest because of this crisis — Merkel’s party has just suffered serious setbacks in state elections because of this crisis. Canada and Japan also are trying to reduce public deficits as a way of improving long term economic prospects.

Only Obama, mired in the flawed and irresponsible Keynesian approach to economic problems, appears to view spending yet more money in the public sector as the only way to approach hard times.

Obama's stimulus bill was a failure in creating jobs and the debt incurred threatens future economic vitality. But it would appear that his ego and left wing ideology will never let him admit it and make the changes necessary to effectively address the situation.

Politics, Corruption and Racism at Obama's Dept. of Justice

Former official speaks out!

"Some of my co-workers argued that the law should not be used against black wrongdoers because of the long history of slavery and segregation. Less charitable individuals called it "payback time." Incredibly, after the case was dismissed, instructions were given that no more cases against racial minorities like the Black Panther case would be brought by the Voting Section." J. Christian Adams

In May, I listed the multiple instances which show Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder to be the most politicized chief law enforcement officer in decades.

One of those examples was the case of the Black Panthers who stood outside a polling place in Philadelphia on election day 2008 wearing para military garb and wielding a club. It was a cut and dry case of voter intimidation and career attorneys within the Dept. of Justice began moving on the case in 2008. But when Eric Holder took over in 2009, the case was dropped and now attorneys who worked on the matter are being told they cannot testify to the Civil Rights Commission which is investigating.

The DOJ Voting Section chief, Chris Coates, was reassigned to South Carolina to stop him from proceeding further. J. Christian Adams, another lawyer in the voting rights section resigned in May. Here, in an op-ed by Adams in the Washington Times in which he explains what is happening:

On the day President Obama was elected, armed men wearing the black berets and jackboots of the New Black Panther Party were stationed at the entrance to a polling place in Philadelphia. They brandished a weapon and intimidated voters and poll watchers. After the election, the Justice Department brought a voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party and those armed thugs. I and other Justice attorneys diligently pursued the case and obtained an entry of default after the defendants ignored the charges. Before a final judgment could be entered in May 2009, our superiors ordered us to dismiss the case.

The New Black Panther case was the simplest and most obvious violation of federal law I saw in my Justice Department career.
...
Based on my firsthand experiences, I believe the dismissal of the Black Panther case was motivated by a lawless hostility toward equal enforcement of the law. Others still within the department share my assessment. The department abetted wrongdoers and abandoned law-abiding citizens victimized by the New Black Panthers. The dismissal raises serious questions about the department's enforcement neutrality in upcoming midterm elections and the subsequent 2012 presidential election.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has opened an investigation into the dismissal and the DOJ's skewed enforcement priorities. Attorneys who brought the case are under subpoena to testify, but the department ordered us to ignore the subpoena, lawlessly placing us in an unacceptable legal limbo.

The assistant attorney general for civil rights, Tom Perez, has testified repeatedly that the "facts and law" did not support this case. That claim is false. If the actions in Philadelphia do not constitute voter intimidation, it is hard to imagine what would, short of an actual outbreak of violence at the polls. Let's all hope this administration has not invited that outcome through the corrupt dismissal.

Most corrupt of all, the lawyers who ordered the dismissal - Loretta King, the Obama-appointed acting head of the Civil Rights Division, and Steve Rosenbaum - did not even read the internal Justice Department memorandums supporting the case and investigation. Just as Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. admitted that he did not read the Arizona immigration law before he condemned it, Mr. Rosenbaum admitted that he had not bothered to read the most important department documents detailing the investigative facts and applicable law in the New Black Panther case. Christopher Coates, the former Voting Section chief, was so outraged at this dereliction of responsibility that he actually threw the memos at Mr. Rosenbaum in the meeting where they were discussing the dismissal of the case. The department subsequently removed all of Mr. Coates' responsibilities and sent him to South Carolina.
...
Most disturbing, the dismissal is part of a creeping lawlessness infusing our government institutions. Citizens would be shocked to learn about the open and pervasive hostility within the Justice Department to bringing civil rights cases against nonwhite defendants on behalf of white victims. Equal enforcement of justice is not a priority of this administration. Open contempt is voiced for these types of cases.

Some of my co-workers argued that the law should not be used against black wrongdoers because of the long history of slavery and segregation. Less charitable individuals called it "payback time." Incredibly, after the case was dismissed, instructions were given that no more cases against racial minorities like the Black Panther case would be brought by the Voting Section.


Do we have a system of "Justice for all" or just justice for approved political or racial groups?

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Quick Takes

These stories are too good to pass up:

Q: What Is First Thing on Obama's Mind After Arriving at Toronto G-8 Summit?

A: Where's the golf course?

If this were George Bush imagine the headlines. As it's Obama, here's about all you will see reported:

National Post
June 25, 2010

When U.S. President Barack Obama stepped off his helicopter in Huntsville on Friday, the first thing he said was, “You’ve got a lot of golf courses here, don’t you?” Industry Minister Tony Clement told the National Post in an exclusive interview.


With all the important work of an international economic summit don't you think Obama should be focused on work rather than play?

Friday, June 25, 2010

Since When Did Ignorance Become a Point of View?

It's bad enough the Dems didn't read the Arizona law. Some don't even know Arizona is on the border with Mexico!

Talk about stunningly stupid! Here's Peggy West, a County Supervisor in Milwaukee Wisconsin, an elected Democrat who supports the boycott of Arizona because of that states immigration law. She doesn't even know Arizona is on the Mexican border:

This is even worse than the Obama voters who were asked simple questions about politics after the election in 2008. Many of them thought the Republicans still controlled Congress; they didn't know who Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid were. But they were intimately acquainted with every rumor about Sarah Palin.

But not to worry Ms. West. I am sure you'll soon be taking up a new job in Obama's cabinet or be elected to congress where you won't have to bother to read bills, or be required to know simple geography!

"News" Media who Hated Petraeus under Bush Think His Choice "Brilliant" Under Obama

Remember that Obama Also dissed Petraeus as a Senator!

Thursday, Rush Limbaugh reminded his listeners that in 2007, nearly every top Democrat, Obama, Biden, Hillary Clinton on down, rejected the positive news that General Petraeus relayed from Iraq in the wake of the surge. Moveon.org put out that disgusting ad referring to the General as "General Betrayus" and suggesting he was just covering up for Bush's failure to win in Iraq.

The Senate passed a resolution demonstrating it's support to Petraeus and condemning the efforts by Moveon and other liberal groups to slander him. Obama didn't even bother to show up and vote. He was too busy campaigning for President. Other Democrats like Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid and John Kerry voted against the resolution.

The "news" media also heaped it's fair share of scorn on the good news from Iraq and the report delivered by General Petraeus. Chris Matthews of MSNBC's Hardball program repeatedly referred to Petraeus's testimony on his report as a "dog and pony show."

Now that Obama has handpicked Petraeus to replace McChrystal in Afghanistan, that same news media is now singing a chorus of how "brilliant" Obama's pick was.

A short video sample:

I guess I wouldn't mind the flip flop in the media and among Democrats if they came out and admitted they were WRONG about the success of the surge in Iraq and wrong to slander General Petraeus. But one thing about liberals, they NEVER admit they are wrong about anything.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Jeb Bush Likens Obama to Immature Child. Suggests Obama is Obsessed with Criticism

Jeb Bush: “I mean, good God, man, read a book...Go watch ESPN!”

Doesn't Jeb realize that Obama spends half his time as President golfing, partying and playing basketball?

Interesting article in the NY Times profiling Jeb Bush and suggesting how he may be stepping forward to defend the Bush family name in light of Obama's continuing fingerpointing at his older brother who feels bound by the "ex President's code" and won't fire back.

It's also an article that subtly speculates on whether Jeb might emerge to run for President himself. Here's an excerpt:

For Jeb Bush, Life Defending the Family Name
By MATT BAI
New York Times
June 22, 2010

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — For months now, Jeb Bush has been listening as President Obama blasts his older brother’s administration for the battered economy, budget deficits and even the lax oversight of oil wells.

“It’s kind of like a kid coming to school saying, ‘The dog ate my homework,’ ” Mr. Bush, this state’s former governor, said over lunch last week at the Biltmore Hotel. “It’s childish. This is what children do until they mature. They don’t accept responsibility.”

In fact, instead of constantly bashing the 43rd president, Mr. Bush offered, perhaps Mr. Obama could learn something from him, especially when it comes to ignoring the Washington chatter. “This would break his heart, to get advice that applies some of the lessons of leadership my brother learned, because he apparently likes to act like he’s still campaigning, and he likes to blame George’s administration for everything,” Mr. Bush said, dangling a ketchup-soaked French fry. “But he really seems like he’s getting caught up in what people are writing about him.”

“I mean, good God, man, read a book!” Mr. Bush said with a laugh. “Go watch ESPN!”

At 57, Jeb Bush remains an intriguing figure inside his fractious party. At a moment when Republicans are groping for an agenda beyond opposition, Mr. Bush has long been considered one of the party’s true idea guys, someone a lot of party insiders think could still be a serious presidential contender.

But Mr. Bush, the son and brother of presidents, occupies just as intriguing a place within his own family. American presidents have traditionally felt themselves duty-bound not to criticize their successors (no matter what their successors may say about them), which means that Jeb is the only Bush in public life who can defend the family name.

“George isn’t going to break that,” Mr. Bush said, meaning the ex-presidents’ code, “and if he was asked to serve in some way, he would do it, in spite of all the ‘it’s Bush’s fault.’ That’s just the kind of guy he is.”
...

No matter what happens in November’s midterm elections, Republicans will have to make a difficult calibration as they head into the presidential season. The party needs a messenger who can keep its Tea Party-type activists energized behind an agenda and a nominee. But Republicans will also be looking for someone who can reposition the party nationally and make its more strident ideology palatable to the wider American electorate.

This explains why some influential Republicans persist in believing that Mr. Bush might still make a strong candidate in 2012. He is a favorite of the anti-establishment crowd (he is said to have mentored Marco Rubio, the Senate challenger in Florida who gave the Tea Partiers a national lift), but he is also a political celebrity with a pronounced independent streak. As governor, for instance, Mr. Bush strongly opposed drilling in the shallow waters off Florida, and he favors increasing legal immigration, rather than restricting it.

Mr. Bush says he has no interest in running, because he wants to make money for his family, but his political allies seem to read a “for now” into such statements. “Every presidential wanna-be and every member of the House and Senate I talk to, if you ask them who is a difference-maker in our party, they will tell you Jeb Bush,” said Al Cardenas, the former party chairman in Florida.
Jeb in 2012? Hmmm... I'm not so sure about that. With all the new faces and new ideas conservatives have to choose from we may be reluctant to go with yet another Bush. But I've been wrong before. At least once anyway!

SC Tea Party Shatters "Racist" Myth

With the nomination of Haley for gov and Scott for Congress, Tea Party proves race is NOT a factor!

Readers will recall how in the wake of the vote on health care Democrats tried to paint Tea Party protesters as racists. Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) went so far as to suggest that the Tea Partiers looked just like the Ku Klux Klan he encountered in the south during the civil rights struggles of the 1960's.

PhotobucketAnd yet, it was the Tea Party movement in South Carolina, along with an endorsement from Sarah Palin which helped propel Tim Scott(pictured right)to victory in the runoff for the GOP nomination to the 1st Congressional seat in SC representing Charleston. To drive the point home, Scott beat Paul Thurmond, the son of the late U.S. senator and former segregationist Strom Thurmond. The 1st district includes Fort Sumter, on which Confederates fired the first shot starting the Civil War.

Also, Niki Haley, who succeeded in the runoff for nomination as the GOP candidate for SC Governor is an Indian-American and a former Sikh.

Can we now put the lie to bed that the Tea Parties are racist? Don't bet on it. Dems get too much mileage out of such wild and unfounded accusations. It helps them stir up the willfully ignorant who make up such a large segment of their political base. It doesn't matter to them that it's not true!

Click here to contribute to Tim Scott's campaign!

NJ Gov. Chris Christies Common Sense

If he can do this for New Jersey, then why not the U.S.?

It's one thing to TALK about reform. Meaningless slogans about hope and change only get you so far. But after the election is over you have to produce. What we are seeing with New Jersey's new Governor Chris Christie (R) is that he can produce. And he does it with common sense. The teacher's unions are screaming about cutbacks, but Christie turns their argument on it's head by pointing out that the people of New Jersey who are paying the bill have already suffered cutbacks in their personal lives. Why should government unions be exempt from the same belt tightening as the people paying the bill?

Great interview on Wednesday:

But for the record, Christie says he is NOT interested in running for President!

Al Gore's "Blue Dress"

Woman accuses Gore of unwanted sexual advances. Is this the cause of Gore marriage breakup?

The Smoking Gun has the details of an explosive allegation of sexual misconduct by Mr. Global Warming, former Vice President Al Gore. The information, which includes a PDF of the actual police report alleges that Gore made unwanted advances to a masseuse in the Hotel Lucia in October 2006. As proof of the encounter the woman saved a pair of black plants she was wearing with "stains" on them.

The woman refused to cooperate with prosecutors and no charges were ever filed against Gore.

You would have thought that Al Gore might have learned his lesson after watching what happened to Bill Clinton. But I guess when you take it upon yourself to be the savior of the planet from the evils of global warming you also think you can do no wrong.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Obama Employs the Grand Distraction with Gen. McChrystal to Take Eyes off Oil Spill

Day 64 of the Spill Disaster!

The master of evasion strikes again!

Remember in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy's dog Toto pulled back the curtain to reveal that the Wizard wasn't so great and powerful after all? [video] Isn't that what we are seeing with Obama and his mismanagement of the Gulf Oil Spill?

I haven't updated this report on the oil spill for several days for the reason that there has been basically no news on the matter. And it looks like that may be intentional on Obama's part as he's desperate to change the subject and distract the American people away from his failure to lead during this worst ever environmental disaster.

Instead, the White House put out a story on Tuesday that Obama was "angry" because of the Rolling Stone article in which Afghanistan Commander General Stanly McChrystal and his staff made unflattering comments about Obama, Biden and others. What a shame Obama doesn't direct his anger at the bureaucrats who are making the oil spill worse by the day. But then, those folks don't criticize him do they?

Instead of addressing the spill, Obama seeks cover behind a tempest in a tea pot over McChrystal (a manufactured outrage if ever there was one) and at the same time directs his political hatchet men at the Democrat National Committee to put out an ad attacking Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) and suggesting that anyone who criticizes Obama's performance in regard to the oil spill is somehow soft on BP.

Meanwhile, the oil continues to gush from the floor of the Gulf. We still can't get an answer to the question as to why cleanup assistance offered by other countries was rejected and why the Coast Guard is only now asking the Navy for help cleaning up the oil?

Still time to vote in the poll: When it comes to managing a disaster or crisis, who does a better job? Bush or Obama?

Lord of the Flies Targets Obama

You know things are bad when the flies go after you!

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A fly lands on President Barack Obama's face as he delivers remarks on the Affordable Care Act and the New Patients Bill of Rights, Tuesday, June 22, 2010, in the East Room of the White House in Washington.
The fly must have been getting revenge for this!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Outrage over BP CEO's Yachting, But Silence Over Another Fun Weekend for Obama

Day 61!

Does it look like Obama is working hard to clean up the spill?

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President Barack Obama, wearing a White Sox baseball cap, attends a baseball game between the Washington Nationals and the Chicago White Sox, Friday, June 18, 2010, in Washington. His daughter Malia is at left.
It's reported that Obama had a great time at the Ball Park on Friday even singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" with the crowd! [video]

Saturday, Obama went golfing with V.P. Biden.

This comes after we learned on Friday that the Coast Guard had only now asked the U.S. Navy if there were any oil skimming ships that would be available to help fight the oil spill in the Gulf. The CG also announced that they had plans to buy additional skimming vessels but these wouldn't be ready for six to eight weeks. Still no explanation as to why foreign help that was offered when the crisis first began has not been accepted.

Wouldn't you think Obama could spend a bit more time working on this problem?

Meanwhile, BP CEO Tony Hayward, who is in the process of being relieved of oil spill duties after working tirelessly at the effort since the spill began is being excoriated in the press and by Gulf residents for taking time off to race his yacht:

Gulf residents outraged by BP CEO's yacht outing
By RAPHAEL SATTER and HOLBROOK MOHR
Associated Press
Jun 19, 4:09 PM (ET)

VENICE, La. (AP) - Just when it seemed Gulf residents couldn't get any more outraged about the massive oil spill fouling their coastline, word came Saturday that BP's CEO was taking time off to attend a glitzy yacht race in England.

Tony Hayward's latest public relations gaffe didn't sit well with people in the U.S. who have seen their livelihoods ruined by the massive two-month oil spill.

"Man, that ain't right. None of us can even go out fishing, and he's at the yacht races," said Bobby Pitre, 33, who runs a tattoo shop in Larose, La. "I wish we could get a day off from the oil, too."

As social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook lit up with anger, BP spokespeople rushed to defend Hayward, who has drawn withering criticism as the public face of his company's halting efforts to stop the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Robert Wine, a BP spokesman at the company's Houston headquarters, said it's the first break Hayward has had since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and setting off the undersea gusher.
So, let me see if I understand this: BP CEO Hayward gets dumped on for taking his first day off and Obama goes on yet another round of playtime (how many does this make?) and there's hardly a peep?

Sixty one days in and the oil continues to gush from the well and the environment of the Gulf continues to be destroyed as the Coast Guard waits for help to arrive. And Obama is AWOL!

Vote in the poll: When it comes to managing a disaster or crisis, who does a better job: Bush or Obama?

Friday, June 18, 2010

More Delay in Oil Cleanup as Coast Guard will Build Skimmers Rather than Use Foreign Help!

Day 60!

And Obama's Gulf Recovery Czar will only be working part time!

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A brown pelican coated in heavy oil wallows in the surf on East Grand Terre Island, Louisiana.
Well here we are at Day 60 of the worst environmental disaster in our nation's history and the oil continues to gush from the broken Deep Horizon well at rates much higher than previously estimated.

What's our "Dear Leader" Obama doing about it? Not much. He hopped on Air Force One today and flew to Columbus, Ohio to give a 12 minute speech touting his claim of the success of the stimulus bill. With unemployment in Ohio remaining over 10% that seems an odd claim to make. Besides, security for his visit forced businesses to close and workers to lose a day's pay.

Meanwhile, we learn that Obama has asked Navy Secretary Ray Mabus (remember this was the job that Joe Sestak supposedly wanted to drop out of the race with Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania) to oversee recovery efforts in the Gulf. But Mabus won't be resigning from his Navy post (itself more than a full time job) he'll just be working part time on Gulf recovery. Just like the rest of Obama's efforts to stop and contain the spill.

One good bit of news is that 32 of the oil separators touted by actor Kevin Costner have arrived in the Gulf and will soon be deployed.

Otherwise, it's business as usual. The briefing Friday by Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen gave us this nugget:
ADMIRAL ALLEN: Sure. We're coordinated with DOD right now to take a look at the availability of skimmers within the Navy inventory. That is (inaudible) right now between us and the Department of Defense and that will be worked out today.

We're also looking at the entire availability around the country. We're actually starting to manufacture skimmers in places like Port Fourchon and other places. What I told the folks is don't anticipate demand can ever be met on skimmers. Getting as many as we can make and as fast as we can get them here is what we need to do.

We're hoping to have a larger strategic assessment of the exact—actual gap that we've got and how many we will need ultimately. Part of the problem is we never had to deal with oil dispersed across this wide an area, but we have the availability of the 2,000 vessels of opportunity.
...
Well, we're pulling everything we can as we—and we're actually—it's ordering. It takes six to eight weeks to actually build a skimmer. We got the production orders in. We're just—it's kind of like the (inaudible) situation. What we're doing is we're taking all of it as quickly as we can get it and we'll have some more (inaudible) later on today or Monday on that. Yes.
So, let's see if I got this right. Only now, after SIXTY DAYS is the Coast Guard checking to see if the Navy has some extra skimmers that can be used? And they are only now ordering new skimmers will will take an additional six to eight weeks to build? No doubt shipbuilding unions will be pleased!

And we STILL haven't accepted the help of other countries who offered us advanced skimming boats at the very beginning of the spill?

No one excuses BP's role in this disaster, But, with Obama and Democrats in Congress spending so much time trying to blame everything on BP, when are they going to be held accountable for their own total lack of leadership, management and just plain old common sense?

Dem Show Trial for BP Chairman No Substitute for Action!

Day 59

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BP CEO Tony Hayward is sworn in prior to testifying about BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 17, 2010.
So what did today's big show trial accomplish?

-Did we learn anything new about how to stop the oil that continues to gush into the Gulf? NO!

-Were we informed of any new efforts to contain the spill and clean up the mess? NO!

-Did this hearing help in ANY way to clear up the bureaucratic bottlenecks which have slowed the cleanup? NO!

Ah, but the Democrats did manage to get their friends in the Code Pink clown patrol seats in the hearing so they could put on another of their famous circus acts. This time, a protester splattered with fake oil instead of blood [video].

Like every other bit of P.R. from Obama and the Democrats this week it was all about giving the appearance of doing something when in fact, nothing new is being done. We are STILL not welcoming the clean up help from many nations. In fact, the Coast Guard Thursday ordered cleanup barges sent by Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal (R) to cease and desist operation. Apparently, the Coast Guard wasn't sure they had a fire extinguisher on board or enough life jackets. Unbelievable!

Daily the number of examples of Obama's incompetence and his complete lack of effective leadership grows as fast as the spill itself!

Cast your online vote: When it comes to managing a disaster or crisis, who does a better job? Bush or Obama?

Thursday, June 17, 2010

The Party Boy President

Too busy to call BP or get the help the people of the Gulf need!

Great new ad from the RNC:


Do yourself a favor and drop some coins in the RNC donations box. We need to see more stuff like this in the weeks before this election!

If You Like Your Current Health Care Plan Get Ready to Say Goodbye

Leaked Gov reports shows approx. 51% of employers will be forced to offer Obama Care!

How many times did Obama promise that "if you like your current health care plan, you can keep it?" The White House is STILL saying that statement is true. The title of a blog post on the White House web site by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius on Monday repeats "Keeping the plan you like." Perhaps Sibelius should have added "but only if you are a member of a labor union."

An internal government report leaked to House Republicans last week tells the real story. (PDF of full report) On page 50 of the report the midrange assumption (could be higher) is that by 2012 51% of "small employers" and 33% of "large employers" will lose the grandfathered status protecting their current plan forcing them to accept Obama Care. Those numbers only increase with time.

But the health plans of labor unions will be exempt.

Here's the full story:

On September 9, 2009, Obama addressed a Joint Session of Congress and warned that "If you misrepresent what's in the plan, we will call you out."

Well Obama, I'm calling YOU out! And in 2012 the American people are going to THROW you out!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Obama Says We are "running out of places to drill???"

Not so!

I just want to make sure this highlight from last night's speech doesn't get lost in the clutter:

OBAMA: Oil is a finite resource. We consume more than 20 percent of the world’s oil, but have less than 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves. And that’s part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean -- because we’re running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.
It's been said many times and is worth saying again: we have abundant supplies of oil in this country, but they have all been put off limits by Democrats who are intent on forcing us to adhere to a flawed environmental premise.

We have PLENTY of oil!

Potentially 85 BILLION barrels of oil offshore:

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source: Minerals Management Services (click for full size map PDF)

Potentially 47 BILLION barrels of oil onshore:

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source: US Geologic Service (click for full size map PDF)

And over TWO TRILLION barrels of oil in Western oil shale:

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source: Institute for Energy Research, US EIA data)

And we haven't even mentioned US coal resources and Natural Gas!

While the rest of the world is scrambling as fast as they can to exploit the energy resources they have, Democrats in the U.S., at the urging of their environmental extremist overlords have consistently done whatever they could to block nearly all development of U.S. energy supplies. No wonder we cannot break our dependency on foreign energy.

The bottom line is that liberals want to control and restrict the sources of energy as a way to exercise primary control over the lives and economic well being of Americans. Even if they got their way with all current legislation for Cap and Tax it wouldn't do one thing to help "save" us from climate change!

Obama Meets w/ BP for Only 45 Minutes

Day 58

He must have been in a hurry to get to the golf course!

The first contact Obama has had with BP executives in the nearly two months since the spill began lasted a whole 45 minutes.

--Did Obama and BP agree on a new plan to stop the oil that continues to gush from the well? NO!

--Did Obama and BP agree on new methods to fight the oil spill that continues to roll ashore along the Gulf? NO!

But Obama got what he came for: a promise from BP to put $20 billion in a fund that will be managed by Obama's Wall Street Pay Czar, Kenneth Feinberg. No word yet on whether ACORN employees will be hired to help distribute the money in the Chicago Way.

Karl Rove's Lessons Learned

or, How the Big Lie Almost Destroyed Bush

Review of "Courage and Consequence"


I recently finished Karl Rove's memoir "Courage and Consequence, My life as a conservative in the fight."

The book traces Karl's development as a conservative and his interest in politics from a young age to the White House. It's an interesting read for anyone interested in politics and the history of the Bush White House. Along the way we get an inside look at Karl's rise from a College Republican, with all the squabbles that entailed (I remember those)to his first meetings with George H.W. Bush and George W. Later, Rove moved to Texas where he began a successful consulting business helping candidates win elections. In Texas, he helped elect George W. Bush Governor and later began drawing the blueprint for Bush's White House win.

Rove takes the reader along on that journey in a style that is interesting and well written. Those who admire his precise and analytical style of writing op-eds or performing in interviews will enjoy the narrative he lays out.

More than a walk down memory lane

But the book is more than a walk down memory lane. Rove also confronts some very basic problems with GOP and the political struggle with Democrats. Rove talks about the "myths" surrounding him suggesting that he was somehow involved in dirty tricks politics and how the left amplified those false reports and eventually demonized Rove as they do most successful conservatives (Sarah Palin being another prime example). Rove finds it interesting that the "news" media whose job it is to examine facts readily repeated false reports about Rove because it fit with their prejudices about who they thought conservatives were.

The Big Lie and Valerie Plame

All those little lies about Rove built up to a caricature that was exploited by Democrats as they waged the big lie campaign against Rove, President Bush and Vice President Cheney and Scooter Libby in the Valerie Plame affair. This event is key to understanding the way Dems use the big lie and how effective it can be in crippling Republicans. Until we find a better way of countering it, the big lie remains the primary tactic Dems rely on to weaken the GOP.

Readers will recall that when Ambassador Joe Wilson returned from a trip to Africa he claimed he was sent by the Vice President's office to look into charges that Iraq had been attempting to buy Uranium for weapons of mass destruction as President Bush suggested in 2003 State of the Union Address. Just one problem: no one in Cheney's office had sent Wilson on the trip and that first lie was the tip of the iceberg of lies Wilson told about the trip and his findings (Iraq had approached African nations seeking uranium)

Wilson's effort was part of an organized strategy Democrats employed in 2003 to undermine President Bush's conduct of the war in Iraq and weaken him politically in the run up to the 2004 campaign. Democrats trotted out their tried and true strategy of "the big lie" with all voices singing in unison: "Bush lied on WMD."

Columnist Bob Novak was looking into the Wilson story, which had snowballed into a regular political firestorm with lots of help from Democrats. In July 2003 he reported (original story here): "Two senior administration officials told me that Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counterproliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him."

Democrats pounced on the idea that someone in the White House might have leaked the identity of a covert agent, something which is a violation of law. There was an immediate demand for an investigation and a Special Prosecutor.

There was just one problem: there never was a violation of the law concerning disclosure of covert CIA agents. Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson's wife, didn't meet the very specific criteria of that law. But that didn't stop Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald from proceeding with an investigation.

It's unclear when Fitzgerald learned that the primary source of the leak was Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. Armitage was never charged with any crime, nor was he brought before the Grand Jury investigating the case. Fitzgerald focused instead on Karl Rove and Scooter Libby, the Vice President's Chief of Staff.

Novak had called Rove to ask about Valerie Plame's connection to Joe Wilson's trip and Rove's recollection is that he had told Novak he had "heard that too." But is that criminal? No. Rove only became a target of the Grand Jury investigation after multiple sessions before the panel in which he at one point did not recollect discussing the Joe Wilson affair with Time Magazine reporter Matt Cooper. Cooper's role in the affair was minor at best.

Fitzgerald and the FBI team investigating Rove had access to all Rove's emails and phone logs but they missed Rove's return call to Cooper. Rove had forgotten about it too. When you are in daily contact with dozens of people via email and phone you tend to forget inconsequential conversations that took place years earlier. The call to Cooper was such a conversation.

It was at the insistence of Rove's lawyer, Donald Luskin, that Rove went back and re-examined his call logs and discovered the call to Cooper. Rove presented that information to the Grand Jury and the astonished Fitzgerald whose team had missed it.

But curiously, Fitzgerald attempted to use this disclosure to accuse Rove of being misleading in earlier testimony where he had failed to recall the phone conversation.

It became clear to Rove that Fitzgerald wasn't looking for a violation of law in the Plame case but to set a perjury trap and carve another notch on his belt by bagging a top White House honcho. Fitzgerald later determined there the evidence to prove Rove was guilty of perjury or obstruction of justice didn't exist. Instead, he went after Scooter Libby who wasn't so lucky. Fitzgerald later admited that "A formal assessment has not been done of the damage caused by the disclosure of Valerie Wilson’s status as a CIA employee." In other words, Fitzgerald never bothered to even determine whether the law protecting covert agents had been broken. He had achieved his goal which was to catch Libby in the perjury trap for the eqivalent of forgetting what he had for breakfast years earlier.

Imagine the toll the years of legal jeopardy took on Karl Rove. An unprecedented five visits to the Grand Jury, huge legal bills and for years the threat of a possible indictment and for what?

Rove summarized the saga this way:

So, after all these years- after all the grueling testimony and fear of indictment and huge legal expenditures by me- this is what it came down to. Not a violation of any law about disclosing the identity of an intelligence officer. Not breaking the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act or the 1917 Espionage Act. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was preparing an indictment because I had told my staff to find any evidence I had contact with Matt Cooper. My request established- in Fitzgerald's mind- that my failure to recall the conversation was a lie.
The Biggest Lie of All: Bush Lied on Iraq!

While Democrats were disappointed they didn't catch Karl Rove in their net, the matter did benefit them in other ways. With Rove spending so much time defending himself he had less time to counter the years long effort Democrats undertook to undermine President Bush's wartime leadership. Readers will recall how Democrats during the Clinton era and into the Bush years routinely cited the dangers of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

But the Dems campaign to force a loss in Iraq wasn't just about WMD. Democrats insisted that Iraq was in a state of "civil war" and that it was hopeless. Even after the surge, which ultimately proved successful, began Senate Dem leader Harry Reid insisted that "this war is lost." Remember the campaign to tar top General Petraeus as "General Betrayus" and how Hillary Clinton said Petraeus's assessment of the gains we had made would "require a willing suspension of disbelief."

Bush's efforts to counter this organized onslaught launched at every level of the Democrat party were sporadic at best. A speech here a press conference there (that's when a President held regular such conferences). But Bush was loathe to get into what he viewed as a partisan squabble and the arguments in support of his policy were largely left to others outside the White House. Rove admits:

Our weak response in defense of the president and in setting the record straight, is, I believe, one of the biggest mistakes of the Bush years. When the pattern of Democratic attacks became apparent in July 2003, we should have countered in a forceful and overwhelming way. This assault was worthy of significant attention by the entire White House, including a rebuttal delivered in a presidential address. We should have seen this for what it was: a poison-tipped dagger aimed at the heart of the Bush presidency.

By not engaging, we let more of the public come to believe dangerous falsehoods about the war...These attacks undermined support for the war and public confidence in the president.

So who was responsible for the failure to respond? I was. I should have stepped forward, rung the warning bell and pressed for full-scale response.
Lesson for the future

What we learn from the Bush experience is that you MUST counter the big lie with an aggressive, organized campaign at all levels. You simply cannot think that the truth will somehow make it's way through the orchestrated blizzard of lies Democrats will launch and that their allies in the "news" media will repeat unquestioningly.

This matter is vital to longterm Republican and conservative governing strategy. If Republicans succeed in retaking one or both Houses of Congress this fall we can expect the Democrats to fall back on their usual playbook and immediately accuse Republicans of wanting to starve kids, pollute the air and water and take away Seniors social security and Medicare. Add to that a dose of phony ethics and corruption charges and it will all be trumpeted 24/7 to undermine progress on our agenda to roll back the excesses of Obama.

Countering the big lie is difficult. The Dems have a built in advantage with the mainstream "news" media and friends in Hollywood and education who have their tentacles wrapped strongly around the organs of communication with the average American. All the above are willing to repeat over and over whatever the going party line is. How do you counter that message when most of the 100 million television viewing households in the country are tuned to sporting events or popular TV shows. Only 22 million or so even get the Dem biased news offered by the major networks. A relatively scant 8-10 million are watching Fox News at best and Talk radio reaches about 30 million tops. This blog post highlighting all this will be lucky to reach 10,000 readers.

The only way to break through the barriers of both indifference and Democrat advantage is to devise, implement and coordinate an organized GOP response. Getting all GOP voices to sing from the same songsheet as Democrats do is akin to herding cats, but the alternative is to permit Dems to continue to use the big lie over and over and over and succeed.

Winston Churchill said: "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on." Karl Rove learned the hard way that the best chance we have to protect ourselves from the big lie is a comprehensive, coordinated strategy with all hands on deck. We simply must not make the mistake of forgetting this vital lesson in the years to come!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Obama Gives Political Speech Not Presidential Address on Oil Spill

Day 57

Obama gave his first Oval Office address tonight, but it sounded more like a political speech than a presidential address.

First, the fingerpointing. From the White House transcript:

One place we’ve already begun to take action is at the agency in charge of regulating drilling and issuing permits, known as the Minerals Management Service. Over the last decade, this agency has become emblematic of a failed philosophy that views all regulation with hostility -- a philosophy that says corporations should be allowed to play by their own rules and police themselves. At this agency, industry insiders were put in charge of industry oversight. Oil companies showered regulators with gifts and favors, and were essentially allowed to conduct their own safety inspections and write their own regulations.
Yeah, it's Bush's fault. That's getting stale. Besides, it was HIS director of the Minerals Management Service, a Harvard environmental lawyer, who was fired for apparently not doing her job. Was she taking bribes? Is so, prosecute her.

The problem with regulating BP isn't that there weren't enough regulations, it was that the people Obama put in office were not doing their job. It was his Administration that was set to give BP a safety award for the Deep Horizon Well shortly before the accident. How is Bush responsible for that?

Then, there was this bit of disinformation:

Oil is a finite resource. We consume more than 20 percent of the world’s oil, but have less than 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves. And that’s part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean -- because we’re running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.
That stat is typical liberal speak in the Blame America chorus. But the reason we are forced to drill in deep water isn't that we have run out of oil in shallow water but because environmentalists with the help of Democrats like Obama have put near shore and much onshore oil off limits. And this business about "running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water" doesn't jive with U.S. government figures which show vast supplies of oil onshore (map pdf)and offshore (map PDF). Not to mention the more than TWO TRILLION barrels of oil available in Western oil shale. Just one problem: environmentalists and their Democrat allies are fighting development of ALL these resources.

Combine that with Obama's moratorium on more offshore oil drilling, which will cost tens of thousands of good paying jobs, and Obama's energy policy means we will be more dependent than ever on foreign sources of oil. While we place our own resources off limits the rest of the world is drilling for oil like there is no tomorrow.

Anyone Care for Pie in the Sky? Or Just Higher Taxes?

Obama spent the closing portion of his speech pushing for cap and tax legislation that won't clean up a single beach or stop the oil from gushing into the Gulf. The legislation, which makes a false promise to reduce CO2, also won't lower the earth's temperature even a fraction of a degree. Neither will any new "green jobs" dependent as they are on government subsidies offset the loss of jobs caused by the bill. After seeing the poor job creating results of the $trillion stimulus bill only a fool would fall for the promise of "green jobs."

Have those who are pursing cap and tax legislation really thought through the consequences? I doubt it. But Obama did say during the 2008 campaign that under his energy policy, electicity rates would "necessarily skyrocket. (video)" Every American family would pay hundreds, perhaps thousands more in higher energy costs. The effect would be to kill more jobs, not create new ones.

PPP Poll Shows Louisianans Think Bush Did Better Job

Obama's political address today is in reaction to news such as this:

Our new Louisiana poll has a lot of data points to show how unhappy voters in the state are with Barack Obama's handling of the oil spill but one perhaps sums it up better than anything else- a majority of voters there think George W. Bush did a better job with Katrina than Obama's done dealing with the spill.

50% of voters in the state, even including 31% of Democrats, give Bush higher marks on that question compared to 35% who pick Obama.

Overall only 32% of Louisianans approve of how Obama has handled the spill to 62% who disapprove. 34% of those polled say they approved of how Bush dealt with Katrina to 58% who disapproved.
Does Obama really think that voters are going to be impressed with a speech long on fingerpointing and political opportunism and short on real answers to the nation's worst environmental disaster in history?

And no where in this speech did Obama even hint that he was ready to accept the offers of help from nations around the world who have advanced oil spill cleanup technology ready and waiting to help.

Meanwhile, the oil keeps gushing from the well (at rates much higher than previously thought) creating the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every five days.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Obama Goes to the Gulf for Slushie in More Ways Than One

Day 56

After a busy weekend that included a Friday date night with Michelle where they attended a play at the Kennedy Center (second theatre visit in less than a week), and a golf outing on Sunday Obama took off on Air Force One and headed to the Gulf region to get a first hand report of.... how good a snow cone tastes in hot June weather?

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Obama (L) poses with a local while enjoying a snow cone following a roundtable discussion with local residents on June 14, 2010 in Gulfport, Mississippi.
One Big Snow Cone: Obama Proposes Multi-Billion Slush Fund

On the serious side of the trip news is that Obama proposes BP hand over several billion dollars to be put into an escrow fund to pay damages and claims as a result of the spill.

Sounds like a good idea on the face of it. Make BP pay and have an independent manager make sure claims are paid quickly. But we're talking about a Chicago politician here and a former community organizer. One of the few areas of experience he has is on how to corrupt a fund for good works and turn it into a political tool. Who will run the fund? Will it use former ACORN employees to distribute the fund and make sure it gets to the "right" (or should I say "left") people? Will "community" groups be eligible for grants from this fund to do whatever it is these groups do?

The opportunity for corruption is a very great concern. Especially so with this Chicago crowd running things.

Obama Appoints Environmentalist Responsible for Pushing Oil Drilling into Hazardous Deep Water as Member of Oil Spill Commission

Also on Monday, the White House announced that Obama has appointed Frances Beinecke as a member of the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling Commission:

Frances Beinecke is currently the President of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)...From 1974 through 1983, Ms. Beinecke worked as a coastal resource specialist in NRDC’s water and coastal programs, fighting to protect marine ecosystems from the impact of offshore oil and gas development and advocating for sound coastal land use.
This is like asking the fox to guard the henhouse and reminds me of the appointment of Jamie Gorelick, chief architect of the wall that prevented law enforcement from talking to intelligence agencies in the run up to 9/11 as a member of the commission charged to find out what went wrong. Environmentalists like Beinecke were the reason rigs like BP's Deep Water had to be built further offshore and in deeper water where the difficulty of stopping a leak is much greater as we all can see.

Send Foreign Skimming Boats AFTER Oil Destroys Beaches and Marshes!

Monday also brought a hint that the Obama Administration might finally get around to accepting help from our friends overseas. Nearly two months into the worst environmental disaster in our nation's history with so much damage already done it seems a little late. And how long would it take that aid to arrive and be operational?

Meanwhile, the oil keeps gushing and more and more is coming ashore.

Psycho Democrat Congressman Assaults Student in DC

I thought the Tea Partiers were the violent ones?

You wonder if elected Democrats aren't starting to lose their sanity? Look at this maniac!

I've had many discussions with members of Congress. Even rather heated discussions with candidates like John McCain. Never once have any of them EVER physically assaulted me.

There is absolutely no excuse for this Democrat's misconduct. There was no provocation that would explain away his behavior.


Want to help defeat this monster? Support his GOP opponent Renee Ellmers for the 2nd Congressional District seat in North Carolina.

Has physical intimidation become totally accepted as a tactic by elected Democrats?

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Obama Golfs While the Gulf Boils in Oil!

Day 55

The Hill newspaper reports that Obama spent Sunday afternoon golfing in sweltering heat.

Meanwhile, the oil continues to gush from the sea floor and the spill is now spreading farther and farther. A massive plume of oil is now only a short distance offshore from Florida's Gulf beaches.

What's Obama doing about it? Has he issued a waiver for the Jones Act which would allow a number of foreign countries which have offered to send advanced ships to help capture the oil before it hits the beach? No. There is still no explanation from the White House as to why these offers have not been accepted.

Coastguard Sent BP a Strongly Worded Letter

Instead of taking any new action that might mitigate the nation's worst environmental disaster in history, Obama's point man, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, sent British Petroleum a letter demanding they do a better job of containing the oil within 48 hours or the Coast Guard will be really, REALLY upset with them.

Why 48 hours? Well, that timeframe matches Obama's planned two day trip to the region and a nationwide televised address Obama plans to give Tuesday night.

Well, let's hope BP's efforts to finally cap the well and stop the spill are successful and that they don't "blow it" by putting so much pressure on the cap that it breaks. But of course, if that happens Obama won't be to blame will he?

But even if BP is finally able to stem the flow (despite the fact that they plan to burn all the oil and gas sending huge amounts of pollution into the air) we still have the problem of all this oil in the Gulf headed slowly towards shore.

Will Obama on Tuesday finally lift the restrictions preventing use of advanced foreign ships to help clear the oil from the Gulf? Sadly, in so much of the Gulf it is already too late.

This disaster has gone beyond Obama's Katrina. It has become Obama's Chernobyl!

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Obama Blames Tea Partiers for Oil Spill

Obama ignores the fact that his Administration failed in their oversight duties of BP!

Day 54!

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In a Politico interview Friday, Obama blamed members of congress "who will not be named" that might have resisted calls for stronger regulation of oil companies. Not that Obama had any intention of introducing stronger regulations. This is another pathetic attempt by Obama to place blame for his failures and those of his Administration.

Obama also blamed the Tea Partiers. Redstate has the full story, but here's the essential quote:
“Some of the same folks who have been hollering and saying ‘do something’ are the same folks who, just two or three months ago, were suggesting that government needs to stop doing so much,” Obama said. “Some of the same people who are saying the president needs to show leadership and solve this problem are some of the same folks who, just a few months ago, were saying this guy is trying to engineer a takeover of our society through the federal government that is going to restrict our freedoms.”
As usual, Obama has it backwards. The problem with BP isn't that we didn't have enough federal regulations, it's that HIS Administration didn't do the oversight function they are REQUIRED to do. (See here, here, here and here)

I doubt there is ONE Tea Partier who would oppose appropriate federal oversight of offshore oil drilling. This disaster and disdain for Obama's lame response has nothing to do with Tea Party concerns over Obama's efforts to "restrict our freedom's."

Obama has already taken over the auto companies, banks, insurance and now health care. Yet, he can't even fulfill his primary responsibility as President (and he IS the #1 person responsible for oversight of offshore oil production) to assure safe operation of oil rigs and oversee cleanup.

Blaming the Tea Partiers is just the latest in a sad display of fingerpointing and blameshifting from Obama. A man who is obviously unequal to the task of being President. It's no surprise that poll after poll shows the American people BLAME OBAMA for much of the mess!

Obama says he's looking for an "ass to kick." I can't think of a bigger ASS than Obama!

Friday, June 11, 2010

Labor Unions and Jones Act Continue to Block Oil Spill Cleanup

Day 53 of the Gulf oil disaster and no end in sight!

On Day 52, I asked: "Does Obama Care More About Protecting Unions Than Cleaning Up Oil Spill? Why hasn't he accepted cleanup help from friends overseas?"

Today, we have another report on the Jones Act. Pay special attention to the words of James Carafano from the Heritage Foundation:

Jones Act Slowing Oil Spill Cleanup?
by: Brian Wilson
Fox News
June 10, 2010

...After 50 plus days of oil flowing freely into the gulf, the question could be asked: Why do effective and proven foreign clean up ships remain on the sidelines? Carafano believes it may have something to do with the Obama administration’s close relationship with labor unions.

“Cause this is a big thing for unions,” Carafano said. “The unions see it as … protecting jobs. They hate when the Jones Act gets waived, and they pound on politicians when they do that. So … are we giving in to unions and not doing everything we can, or is there some kind of impediment that we don't know about?


Does Obama care more about his union allies than he does for the environment and the people along the Gulf? You decide!

The Failure of Obama's Iran Policy

Weakness and appeasment only invites aggression and causes friends to reconsider the value of our friendship!

Remember that Obama promised a new kind of foreign policy. No more cowboy Bush alienating friends and making problems worse. Obama was going to succeed in dealing with Iran where Bush had failed. Soft power was the key. Just like hope and change, it was all a mirage.

Obama lived up to his word. He opened negotiations with Iran and found it difficult to criticize the Iranian regime even as it murdered it's citizens in the streets last year. Who can forget the horror as we watched Neda Soltan bleed to death [graphic video] after being shot on the periphery of an anti-government protest. The protesters called out "Obama are you with us or with them?" Obama thought that by staying out of it he would curry favor with the mad Mullahs. Instead he curried their contempt.

Iran has continued to thumb it's nose at Obama's peace offerings and instead seems hell bent on developing nuclear weapons and is actively engaged in a thus far successful campaign to build alliances with U.S. friends and strategic competitors. On the chessboard of International Relations, Obama finds himself losing pieces.

Even reporters at the Washtingon Post have begun to notice Obama's failure. In an extraordinary article on Wednesay, the headline was "A resilient Iran shields itself from pressure by building alliances." An excerpt:

A year ago, Iran was on its way to becoming a pariah state. Dozens of governments accused Iranian leaders of stealing the presidential election and condemned the brutal crackdown on protesters that followed. The country faced sanctions and international scorn over its controversial nuclear program.

Now, even as the U.N. Security Council prepares to impose its fourth round of sanctions on Iran with a vote slated for Wednesday, Tehran is demonstrating remarkable resilience, insulating some of its most crucial industries from U.S.-backed financial restrictions and building a formidable diplomatic network that should help it withstand some of the pressure from the West. Iranian leaders are meeting politicians in world capitals from Tokyo to Brussels. They are also signing game-changing energy deals, increasing their economic self-sufficiency and even gaining seats on international bodies.

Iran's ability to navigate such a perilous diplomatic course, analysts say, reflects both Iranian savvy and U.S. shortcomings as up-and-coming global players attempt to challenge U.S. supremacy, and look to Iran as a useful instrument.

"We are very proud of our diplomacy, although we are mainly benefiting from mistakes made by the United States and its allies," said Kazem Jalali, a key member of the Iranian parliament's commission on national security and foreign policy. "We are using all our resources to exploit these weaknesses."
Obama's "mistakes" are making Iran stronger, not weaker and certainly not more isolated.

Charles Krauthammer takes up the theme:

The myth of Iran's 'isolation'
By Charles Krauthammer
Washington Post
Friday, June 11, 2010

In announcing the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Iran, President Obama stressed not once but twice Iran's increasing "isolation" from the world. This claim is not surprising considering that after 16 months of an "extended hand" policy, in response to which Iran accelerated its nuclear program -- more centrifuges, more enrichment sites, higher enrichment levels -- Iranian "isolation" is about the only achievement to which the administration can even plausibly lay claim.

"Isolation" may have failed to deflect Iran's nuclear ambitions, but it does enjoy incessant repetition by the administration. For example, in his State of the Union address, President Obama declared that "the Islamic Republic of Iran is more isolated." Two months later, Vice President Biden asserted that "since our administration has come to power, I would point out that Iran is more isolated -- internally, externally -- has fewer friends in the world." At the signing of the START treaty in April, Obama declared that "those nations that refuse to meet their obligations [to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, i.e., Iran] will be isolated."

Really? On Tuesday, one day before the president touted passage of a surpassingly weak U.N. resolution and declared Iran yet more isolated, the leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran gathered at a security summit in Istanbul "in a display of regional power that appeared to be calculated to test the United States," as the New York Times put it. I would add: And calculated to demonstrate the hollowness of U.S. claims of Iranian isolation, to flaunt Iran's growing ties with Russia and quasi-alliance with Turkey, a NATO member no less.

Apart from the fact that isolation is hardly an end in itself and is pointless if, regardless, Iran rushes headlong to become a nuclear power, the very claim of Iran's increasing isolation is increasingly implausible. Just last month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hosted an ostentatious love fest in Tehran with the leaders of Turkey and Brazil. The three raised hands together and announced a uranium transfer deal that was designed to torpedo U.S. attempts to impose U.N. sanctions.
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Increasing isolation? In the past year alone, Ahmadinejad has been welcomed in Kabul, Istanbul, Copenhagen, Caracas, Brasilia, La Paz, Senegal, Gambia and Uganda. Today, he is in China.

Three Iran sanctions resolutions passed in the Bush years. They were all passed without a single "no" vote. But after 16 months of laboring to produce a mouse, Obama garnered only 12 votes for his sorry sanctions, with Lebanon abstaining and Turkey and Brazil voting against.

From the beginning, the Obama strategy toward Iran and other rogue states had been to offer goodwill and concessions on the premise that this would lead to one of two outcomes: (a) the other side changes policy, or (b) if not, the world isolates the offending state and rallies around us -- now that we have demonstrated last-mile good intentions.

Hence, nearly a year and a half of peace overtures, negotiation, concessions, two New Year's messages to the Iranian people, a bit of groveling about U.S. involvement in the 1953 coup and a disgraceful silence when the regime's very stability was threatened by peaceful demonstrators.

Iran's response? Defiance, contempt and an acceleration of its nuclear program.

And the world's response? Did it rally behind us? The Russians and Chinese bargained furiously and successfully to hollow out the sanctions resolution. Turkey is openly choosing sides with the region's "strong horse" -- Iran and its clients (Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas) -- as it watches the United States flailingly try to placate Syria and appease Iran while it pressures Israel, neglects Lebanon and draws down its power in the region.

To say nothing of Brazil. Et tu, Lula?

This comes after 16 months of assiduously courting these powers with one conciliatory gesture after another: "resetting" relations with Russia, kowtowing to China, lavishing a two-day visit on Turkey highlighted by a speech to the Turkish parliament in Ankara, and elevating Brazil by supplanting the G-8 with the G-20. All this has been read as American weakness, evidence that Obama can be rolled.

The result is succinctly, if understatedly, captured in Wednesday's Post headline "U.S. alliance against Iran is showing new signs of vulnerability."

You think?

Obama's foreign policy is a disaster waiting to happen. And unlike the environmental disaster in the Gulf, Obama's foreign policy disaster will be measured in blood not oil!
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