We always knew it

Tonight's Music

Gaelic Storm's Johnny Jump Up, about the evils of drinking hard cider.

Right again Sarah

Is it really any surprise that oil and gas prices are surging toward the record highs we saw in 2008 just prior to the economic collapse? Despite the President’s strange assertions in his press conference last week, his Administration is not a passive observer to the trends that have inflated oil prices to dangerous levels. His war on domestic oil and gas exploration and production has caused us pain at the pump, endangered our already sluggish economic recovery, and threatened our national security.

The evidence of the President’s anti-drilling mentality and his culpability in the high gas prices hurting Americans is there for all to see. The following is not even an exhaustive list:

Exhibit A: His drilling moratorium. Guided by politics and pure emotion following the Gulf spill instead of peer-reviewed science or defensible law, the President used the power of his executive order to impose a deepwater drilling moratorium. The Administration even ignored a court order halting his moratorium. And what is the net result of the President’s (in)actions? A large drilling company was forced to declare bankruptcy, the economy of the region has been hobbled, and at least 7 rigs moved out of the Gulf area to other parts of the world while many others remain idle. Is it any surprise that oil production in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to fall by 240,000 bbl/d in 2011 alone?

But that’s just the Gulf. There’s also the question of a moratorium on the development of Alaska’s Outer Continental Shelf. It seems the Obama Administration can’t agree with itself on whether it imposed a moratorium there or not. The White House claims that they didn’t, but their own Department of the Interior let slip that they did. To clear up this mess, Gov. Parnell decided to sue the DOI to get a solid answer because such a federal OCS drilling moratorium would violate federal law.

Exhibit B: His 2012 budget. The President used his 2012 budget to propose the elimination of several vital oil and natural gas production tax incentives. Eliminating these incentives will discourage energy companies from completing exploratory projects, resulting in higher energy costs for all Americans – and not just at the pump. According to one study mentioned in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, eliminating the deduction for drilling costs “could increase natural gas prices by 50 cents per thousand cubic feet,” which would translate to “an increased cost to consumers of $11.5 billion per year in the form of higher natural gas prices.”

Exhibit C: His anti-drilling regulatory policies. The U.S. Geological Survey found that the area north of the Arctic Circle has an estimated 90 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas, one third of which is in Alaskan territory. That’s our next Prudhoe Bay right there. According to one industry study, allowing Royal Dutch Shell to tap these reserves in Alaska’s Chukchi and Beaufort seas would create an annual average of 54,700 jobs nationwide with a $145 billion total payroll and generate an additional $193 billion a year in total revenues to local, state, and federal governments for 50 years. This would be great news if only the federal government would allow Shell to drill there. But it won’t. It’s been five years since Shell purchased the lease to develop these fields, but it’s been mired in a regulatory funk courtesy of the Obama Administration. After investing $3.5 billion in exploration programs (a significant portion of which went to ensuring responsible spill response and prevention), Shell announced last month that it has given up hope of obtaining the required permits to conduct exploratory drilling this year. That means no jobs and no billions in oil revenue from the Arctic anytime soon thanks to this Administration. Let’s stop and think about this for a moment. Right now Beltway politicos are quibbling over cutting $61 billion from our dangerously bloated $3.7 trillion budget. Allowing drilling in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas will enrich federal coffers by $167 billion a year without raising our taxes. If we let Harry Reid keep his “cowboy poetry,” would the White House consider letting us drill?

Taken altogether, it’s hard to deny that the Obama Administration is anti-drilling. The President may try to suggest that the rise in oil prices has nothing to do with him, but the American people won’t be fooled. Before we saw any protests in the Middle East, increased global demand led to a significant rise in oil prices; but the White House stood idly by watching the prices go up and allowing America to remain increasingly dependent on imports from foreign regimes in dangerously unstable parts of the world.

This was no accident. Through a process of what candidate Obama once called “gradual adjustment,” American consumers have seen prices at the pump rise 67 percent since he took office. Let’s not forget that in September 2008, candidate Obama’s Energy Secretary in-waiting said: “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” That’s one campaign promise they’re working hard to fulfill! Last week, the British Telegraph reported that the price of petrol in the UK hit £6 a gallon – which comes to about $9.70. If you think $4 a gallon is bad now, just wait till the next crisis causes oil prices to “necessarily” skyrocket. Meanwhile, the vast undeveloped reserves that could help to keep prices at the pump affordable remain locked up because of President Obama’s deliberate unwillingness to drill here and drill now.

Hitting the American people with higher gas prices like this is essentially a hidden tax and a transfer of wealth to foreign regimes who are providing us the energy we refuse to provide for ourselves. Like inflation, higher energy prices are a hidden tax on Americans who are struggling to make ends meet. And these high gas prices will be felt in the form of higher food prices due to higher transportation costs. Energy is connected to everything in our economy. Access to affordable and secure energy is key to economic growth, which in turn is key to job growth. Energy is the building block of our economy. The President is purposely weakening that building block and weakening our country.

2012 can’t come soon enough.

- Sarah Palin

If there was no other reason to vote for Sarah Palin in 2012 her understanding of our nations desperate need to develop all, and I mean ALL of our domestic energy resources would be enough to justify electing her.

 

Of course there are a great many other reasons to hope that she runs and wins next year.

Quote of the day

From Clair, blogging at the new and technologically superior Sondrakistan:

The President of the United States — Leader of the Free World — stood there with his face hanging out and allowed himself to be quoted in public as saying “it would be easier” to be a totalitarian leader who has people confined in organ farms for their non-conforming beliefs.

This in response to Obama's wistful comment that it would be "eaiser" to be president of China.

Go read the rest for some interesting facts about China.

All things considered do we really want him paying attention?

Keith Koffler writes in White House Dossier:

The Middle East is afire with rebellion, Japan is imploding from an earthquake, and the battle of the budget is on in the United States, but none of this seems to be deterring President Obama from a heavy schedule of childish distractions.

The newly installed tandem of White House Chief of Staff William Daley and Senior adviser David Plouffe were supposed to impart a new sense of discipline and purpose to the White House. Instead, they are permitting him to showcase himself as a poorly focused leader who has his priorities backward.

This morning, as Japan’s nuclear crisis enters a potentially catastrophic phase, we are told that Obama is videotaping his NCAA tournament picks and that we’ll be able to tune into ESPN Wednesday to find out who he likes.

Saturday, he made his 61st outing to the golf course as president, and got back to the White House with just enough time for a quick shower before heading out to party with Washington’s elite journalists at the annual Gridiron Dinner.

With various urgencies swirling about him, Saturday’s weekly videotaped presidential address focusing on “Women’s History Month” seemed bizarrely out of touch.

Obama Friday took time out to honor the 2009-10 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks. Thursday was a White House conference on bullying – not a bad idea perhaps, but not quite Leader of the Free World stuff either.

Obama appeared a little sleepy as he weighed in against the bullies, perhaps because he’d spent the night before partying with lawmakers as they took in a Chicago Bulls vs. Charlotte Bobcats game.

Meanwhile, the president has been studying for weeks whether to establish a No Fly Zone over Libya, delaying action while the point becomes increasingly moot as Qaddafi begins to defeat and slaughter his opponents. And lawmakers from both Parties are wondering why he seems to be AWOL in the deficit reduction debate.

The Libya indecision follows an inconsistent response to the protests that ousted former Egyptian President Mubarak and seemed to catch the White House off guard. The perfunctory response from the White House Monday to Saudi Arabia’s dispatch of troops to Bahrain suggested the administration wasn’t prepared for that one either.

But the fun stuff won’t end anytime soon. On Thursday, the Taoiseach of Ireland will be in town to help the president celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. And then Friday it’s off to Brazil for the start of a three-country Latin American tour.

Oddly, he’ll be missing Carnival, which went down last week.

This is a perfect companion to the piece directly below. 

Obama is incompetent and in over his head.  He is lazy and obsessed with the perks of the office.  He is disconnected and sees the office of the president as nothing more than an opportunity to advance his radical leftist agenda of turning America into a European-style socialist nation.

He is working on making his picks for college basketball rather than an American response to events in the Middle East or Japan because he cares more about college hoops than he does about the Middle East or Japan.

This is just another way for Obama to vote "present".

Maybe when he gets back from Latin America he can invite some of his left-wing Hollywood buddies to the White House for another high fat, high calorie feast the cost of which would feed an entire Appalachian town for a month or the entire nation of Haiti for a year.

It isn't that they can't see the truth - it's just that they don't care

AWR Hawkins writes in today's Big Hollywood:

When I read Sarah Silverman’s gushing description of a “private” meeting between her and President Obama in a hotel hallway, one in which he gave her “a big hug,” my first reaction was to laugh out loud. I found it hilarious that even amid crippling unemployment figures, skyrocketing energy prices, and foreign policies only Jimmy Carter could love, Hollywood elitism was still clinging to the dream.

Of course it went from hilarious to sickening when I read further into Silverman’s account of the event, and saw how she reacted to the “big hug” by equating Obama’s body with that of a thoroughbred. At this point I said to myself: “Silverman has obviously never hugged a thoroughbred.” (I grew up around racehorses, and Obama’s emasculated frame is by no means reminiscent of a thoroughbred.)

As a matter of fact, Silverman’s comparison of the two – Obama’s body with that of a thoroughbred – is so silly that one might call her sanity into question were it not for the fact that she’s not alone in speaking the absurd in relation to Obama. In other words, she’s not the only Hollywood celebrity to utter such imbecility; she’s just the latest one.

For example, during the 2008 campaign cycle, director Spike Lee said an Obama presidency would not simply bring “a new day, [but] a better day.” George Clooney said Obama possessed “the one quality you cannot teach…which is he is a leader.” And actor Josh Lucas described Obama as “a truly scholarly man.” (Pardon me while I throw up.)

I wonder what the people represented by the approximately 10% unemployment figures in this country would say about Obama’s new day? I wonder what Gulf of Mexico residents who watched Obama play golf in 2010 instead of taking a hands-on approach to the BP oil spill would say of his leadership? And since when does thinking the United States has 57 states or stuttering through speeches on a teleprompter or spending a country into oblivion by running a 3 trillion dollar deficit up to 14 trillion in 2 years seem scholarly?


Obama hasn’t brought a better day, he isn’t a leader, and the only scholarly attribute he has is the distance he keeps between himself and the real world.

Other than that, his only credentials arise from the way his speeches send a thrill up Chris Matthews’ leg or make some second-string comedian like Sarah Silverman tell him she’s going to be naked in her next film.

Yawn.

The left-wing elites, Hollywood or otherwise, simply don't care how America and its people have suffered under the "leadership" of Obama.

He's young, he's black and he's a leftist just like them and that is all that matters.

Seriously the Left doesn't care that Obama has gone out of his way to insult and betray our allies.  After all if they were allies of the Unites States in the dark time before Obama then there must be something very wrong with them.  And they don't care that he apologizes and bows down before our enemies since if they were our enemies in the dark time before Obama then they must be good people.

They don't care that he has wrecked the economy since the more people who depend upon handouts from the government the more people who vote Democrat.

They don't care that he has made America militarily weaker since a powerful America is a bully who pushes around innocent dictators like Saddam Hussein and innocent jihadists like Osama bin Laden and others whose murderous tyranny can be easily overlooked because they hate the United States as much as the Left does.

They don't care that Obamacare will dramatically reduce the quality of healthcare available to the average American since they can always jet off to a private clinic in another country like the elites of Europe do.

They don't care that he is saddling the nation with massive debt which will take a century to pay off - if ever - because it will make it very much harder for a future Republican administration to rebuild the economy, the military and America's place of world leadership.

As long as the lifestyles of the leftists are not lowered and they can retain their place in what they regard as the elite ranks of Hollywood, academia and politics they will just fine with the loss of wealth and liberty of the American people.

No one wants The One (tm) to speak to them any more

From CBS News:

The White House is ramping up an effort to promote a nationwide competition to decide which high school wins a commencement speech by President Obama.

An internal White House memo indicates that the White House is facing a shortage of applications less than a week before the deadline.
The competition was extended from the February 25 deadline until Friday, March 11 after few schools met the original application deadline. CBS News has learned a White House Communications Office internal memo dated February 22 noted "a major issue with the Commencement Challenge."
"As of yesterday we had received 14 applications and the deadline is Friday," the memo said. The memo also urged recipients to, "please keep the application number close hold."


A follow-up memo on February 28 reported receipt of 68 applications. Noting the competition among more than 1,000 schools last year, the memo said, "Something isn't working." It called on staffers to ask "friendly congressional, gubernatorial and mayoral offices" to encourage schools to apply. 

"We should also make sure the Cabinet is pushing the competition out to their lists," the memo said. The note reiterated, "We do not want the actual application number out there (we didn't release the number of applications we received last year until after the submission period)-so folks should not use it in their pitches."

On Monday, officials declined to cite the number of applications received so far.

[. . .]

Officials were unable to explain the reason for the apparent lack of interest, beyond pointing to possible procrastination by school systems.

How about the fact that even public school officials are waking up to the fact that Obama is a toxic loser who is running the nation into the ground and doing it deliberately?  Think that could have something to do with why no one wants him coming around stinking up their campus?

Notorious Mexican Shower Gang strikes again

From The Smoking Gun:

After breaking into an Oregon residence last night, Timothy Chapek, 24, barricaded himself in a bathroom after the owner unexpectedly arrived home. Chapek, you see, was worried that Hilary Mackenzie might be armed (or that her barking German Shepherds could prove problematic).

So he called 911 seeking help. “I just broke into a house and the owner came home,” Chapek told a police operator. “You broke into a house?” the surprised operator responded. “I think she’s got guns,” Chapek added.

Simultaneously, Mackenzie called police to report that there was an intruder in her Portland home (she told an operator that Chapek had reported he was taking a shower). . .

According to a Portland Police Bureau report, Chapek told cops he was “taking a shower, nothing more.” Mackenzie reported that none of her belongings were out of place and that Chapek had “earlier made some utterance…that ‘Mexicans’ had kidnapped him and put him in the bathroom.”

These Mexicans have also been known to force people to brush and floss and on at least one occasion they invaded a suburban San Francisco home and forced two children to pick up their toys.

Seriously, this housebreaker is a true and genuine moron - but he did have the sense to fear an armed home owner.  The woman didn't even have to have a gun in fact. It was enough that the idiot believe that she was armed to make him soil his diapers and beg the cops to come and rescue him.

This illustrates two key points.  One is that there is no better way to protect yourself than to have a gun (and the knowledge of how to use it).  The other is that criminals fear armed citizens far more than they fear the police.

Tonight's Music

Dave Alvin & the Guilty Men - Out of Control