Jul 30 2010

Obama ambush and humiliate

Published by admin under Obama

Obama’s Mean Streak By Ed Lasky

Barack Obama seems to have a pattern of using ceremonial or stately events as opportunities to ambush and humiliate people. This behavior is unpresidential and reveals a vindictive streak that makes Richard Nixon look like Mister Rogers.

A few examples of Obama’s taking pleasure in administering public pain to others:

During the State of the Union Address, he chose to direct his ire at the justices of the Supreme Court, located in the front rows. After the Supreme Court issued a ruling in favor of the First Amendment regarding political speech, Barack Obama famously chose to dress down the black-clad justices before the entire nation — miscomprehending the law and the ruling in a fit of (un)presidential petulance. The embarrassing spectacle was prompted by a view that the court’s ruling may make it easier for opponents of the president and Democrats to make their views known to the public.

Regardless of Obama’s pique, it was wrong on so many levels that it earned a rebuke from the Supreme Court historian, who had enthusiastically voted for him. The noted historian said it “was really unusual in my mind to see the President going after the Supreme Court in such a forum.” That is change for you. He predicted that justices may refuse to attend in the future because “you don’t go to be insulted. I can’t see the Justices wanting to be there and be insulted by the President.”

Their appearance was a mark of respect for the government of the United States, broken into three branches but united in the goal of helping fellow Americans. Barack Obama did not reciprocate the respect — and demeaned himself (though his narcissism and his cheering section entourage would shield him from such self-reflection) and the dignity of the office by needlessly ambushing the most august institution of the land.

He seems to have a penchant for ambushing financial executives, too — or people he calls “fat cats” — after he cashes their campaign checks. But he does like to tag people with labels.

While purportedly holding a meeting to work with financial executives to help stabilize financial markets, Barack Obama could not resist taunting them with the threat that “I’m the only thing standing between you and the pitchforks.” That was not why they came to a meeting supposedly called to work together to resolve problems in the financial sector.

He did the same with doctors, though. He co-opted the American Medical Association to get them on board for ObamaCare and then blasted doctors for, among other sins, taking kids’ tonsils out because doctors are greedy.

While meeting with a Democrat wavering on casting a yes vote on ObamaCare, he chose not to engage him with reasons, but instead belittled him in front of others by telling him, “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother.” Was this form of public emasculation really necessary? No…but Obama has the itch, and it must be scratched.

He chose to snub a variety of foreign leaders, including then-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, with whom he denied a diplomatic meeting during a visit (a snub that may have hurt Brown politically at home). Also, Obama walked out of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to have dinner with his family — and refused a photo-op, joint news conference, or proper welcome, to boot. Both were democratic leaders, yet Obama bows to dictators such as the Saudi King and has a hug for the thug from Caracas. The ambushing of Netanyahu may have had a goal of also hurting him with voters in Israel, who treasure their relationship with America. The ambush did not work. Israelis don’t like being ambushed — they have had plenty of experience with such treatment. The public rallied to Netanyahu after the disgraceful treatment meted out to him by Barack Obama.

Can we forget the lack of graciousness when Obama told John McCain during the health care summit that he convened, supposedly in the spirit of comity, that “the election is over“?

Was it necessary to allude that racism led Boston policemen to confront Obama’s friend, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, over what appeared to be a breaking and entering? For all the nation to see, he slurred Boston policemen as racists. Why?

In the hands of this president, the bully pulpit is used not to persuade and convince, but to bully into a public pulp those he considers his foes. At a groundbreaking for a car battery plant funded by “stimulus money” that was located in the district of Republican Congressman Peter Hoekstra (who opposed the stimulus), Obama could not resist the urge to try to humiliate Hoekstra, who also was at the opening.

There are some folks who want to go back — who think we should return to the policies that helped to lead to this recession,” Obama said later in his comments honoring a new advanced battery factory being built by the company LG Chem. “Some made the political calculation that it’s better to obstruct than lend a hand. They said no to the tax cuts, they said no to small business loans, they said no to clean energy projects. It doesn’t stop them from coming to ribbon cuttings — but that’s OK.”

This was not the first time he chose to turn a celebration into an ambush, a party into a shooting gallery.

The president was flying to Peoria to appear with the CEO of Caterpillar at a plant. Obama told reporters that he had spoken to the CEO, who he said assured him that he was going to rehire laid off employees as soon as the stimulus bill was passed. This was a surprise to the CEO, who, after the Obama appearance at the plant was over, was asked by the reporters about this so-called pledge. He stumbled over the issue — who wants to publicly call the president a liar? But the CEO said that Obama’s statement was not true, and there were no plans to rehire people. He was ambushed by Barack Obama.

So was Republican Congressman Aaron Schock, whose district encompassed the plant. Obama invited Schock along on Air Force One for the trip. In his speech, Obama singled out Schock for another Obama ambush, telling his audience to visit with Schock and encourage him “to do the right thing for the people of Illinois.” In this case, Obama’s ambush killed two birds with one stone — a rare sign of efficiency on the part of our competency-challenged President.

The body count of Obama’s ambushes will grow in the years ahead. How does this help to bring about the civility that Obama preaches should be part of our civic discourse? Of course, it doesn’t. Hypocrisy is Obama’s trademark. His style of ambushing and humiliating people is a sign of something deeper and darker in Obama’s psyche, in his emotional makeup. He is vindictive and enjoys the spectacle of belittling people in front of others and in front of cameras.

The milk of human kindness does not flow in this man’s veins, but rather something bitterer — a type of personal poison that he enjoys spraying on others.

This does not dignify the office or the man. But he doesn’t seem to care, and the courtier press that covers him with glory doesn’t, either.

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Jul 30 2010

The Anti-Drilling Commission

Published by admin under Bet You Did NOT Know

The Anti-Drilling Commission

By Jeffrey Folks

The commission appointed by President Obama to investigate the Gulf oil spill (the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling) does not include a single member with specialized knowledge of petroleum engineering. This is akin to performing a heart transplant with a surgical team that has never set foot in an operating room.

Of the seven members appointed to the commission, not one is a petroleum engineer, and all have long-standing ties to the environmental movement. This is certainly the case with Frances Beinecke, Donald Boesch, Terry Garcia, and Frances Ulmer, all of whom have close ties to environmentalist research and policy groups. Beinecke, in fact, is president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, while Ulmer is a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists. How’s that for an unbiased commission on drilling?

If the president’s intention was to prevent future leaks, why would he appoint a commission with no knowledge of drilling? The answer, it would seem, is that this commission was never meant to perform the task it was officially charged with. It was never really intended to be a commission on drilling safety, but rather a group of environmental activists intent on regulating and taxing the oil and gas companies out of business. Its report is unlikely to focus on improved safely measures with the intent of increasing oil and gas exploration and production. It will more likely issue a blueprint on how to restrict drilling while extorting profits from oil companies by way of new fees and regulation.

Even as the commission hears impassioned testimony from Gulf Coast residents about the economic devastation of Obama’s ban on deep-water drilling (his second ban, the first having been ruled illegal by a federal court), its members continue to register their opposition to drilling of any sort. Following recent testimony in New Orleans, during which prominent Gulf leaders pleaded for a resumption of offshore drilling, the commission’s directors, William Reilly and Bob Graham, offered lip service to the resumption of drilling. But where were Ms. Beinecke and the commission’s other environmental activists during these hearings? From all accounts, they have been silent about the economic damage caused by Obama’s drilling ban.

There are two crucial lessons to be learned from the Deepwater Horizon accident, but it is doubtful whether the commission will comprehend either of them. The first is that “best practices” exist which, had they been strictly adhered to, may have prevented the Deepwater Horizon accident. It is for the commission to determine whether they were followed in that case, but it is incontrovertible that best practices have prevented significant accidents on all of the other 40,000 wells drilled in the Gulf. These practices, with continual improvement, should prevent spills in the future as well.

The second lesson, and one that no one in government or the mainstream media seems to have considered, is that the Deepwater Horizon, however flawed its management might have been, had the capacity to produce a great deal of oil and gas. Based on the enormous flow of oil from the Deepwater Horizon and others among the 33 deep-water rigs operating in the Gulf, it is clear that vast reserves of oil and gas exist off America’s shores. These reserves are enough to make the United States energy-independent. They are enough to revive our flagging economy, enough to produce jobs for hundreds of thousands of workers and to create secondary and tertiary jobs for millions of others.

Estimates of oil flow from the Deepwater Horizon have come in at between 40,000 and 100,000 barrels. Taking a mean estimate of 70,000 barrels, the annual production from the well, not counting natural gas and condensates, would have amounted to 25,555,000 barrels per year. One hundred such deep-water wells in the Gulf, producing equal quantities of oil, would produce over 2.5 billion barrels per year, enough to supply one-third of the petroleum needs of the United States. This new production alone would add over $175 billion to annual GDP, and it would cut America’s annual trade deficit by the same amount. Combined with increased onshore drilling, conservation measures, and increased production of natural gas made possible by advances in drilling technology, offshore drilling would render the United States energy-independent for the first time in a half-century.

Moreover, deep-water drilling has the potential to transform America from the slow-growth, high-unemployment welfare state that President Obama envisages into a prosperous, full-employment economy. This new economy would not only be energy independent, but it might well become an exporter of oil and gas — as it is now an exporter of coal.

Expansion from the current 33 wells to 100 is a realistic goal, since it would not be necessary to drill 100 deep-water wells annually. Oil flow from wells such as the Deepwater Horizon continues for ten to thirty years, or even more (as it has in the North Sea). Ten additional deepwater wells per year, combined with fracking for natural gas on shore, would soon move the country toward energy independence.

For most Americans, new drilling and the energy independence that comes with it seem like a good thing, but that is the very reason why the president has appointed a commission hostile to increased drilling. The success of the free market in the United States depends to a great extent on the availability of cheap energy. By cutting off the supply of oil, natural gas, and coal, Obama ensures a continuation of high unemployment and an extended period of slow growth, and with these, the expansion of the socialist welfare state.

Nothing could be further from the interests of the modern-day Democratic Party than the transformation of the American economy into a flourishing free-market economy powered by cheap and reliable fossil fuels. The fight over drilling, in this sense, is nothing less than a struggle for the future of capitalism in America.

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Jul 30 2010

Obama and Buzz Light Year Budget To Infinity And Beyond!

Published by admin under Obama

Obama’s Budget: To Infinity And Beyond!
Posted by: Chairman Michael Steele

If you could buy stock in the national debt, do it. It’s headed for the moon.” That’s what CBS’s Mark Knoller had to say about the Democrats’ inability to control their outrageous spending practices since they have taken power. And he is right on: The White House recently raised its deficit forecast for 2011 to $1.4 trillion, which would be equivalent to 9.2% of the national economy.

Many are rightfully questioning the judgment of Democrat leadership and asking, “if American families have to live within their means on a budget, shouldn’t our government?” The debt is projected to top 100 percent of GDP. In short, the Democrats’ wish that we could spend our way out of the current economic crisis has only resulted in ballooning the deficit to historic highs while passing the buck on to our future children and grandchildren.

However, these failed practices are having more immediate effects on ordinary Americans today. The floundering economy is stagnating thanks to the President’s brand of “Obamanomics,” or tax and spend policies. Unemployment stands at almost 10% and projections look grim for the next few years. With all of the Democrats’ bluster about job creation, we see past the phony “created or saved” numbers and know that the only jobs they are interested in promoting are those in the government.

Whether or not the Democrats are serious about fixing the economy, their policies have totally and unequivocally been a disaster for the American people. Their failed Stimulus Bill, $2.5 trillion government takeover of health care, and plans for a Cap-and-Trade national energy tax represent a series of poor policy choices that have been acted upon against the wishes of the American people.

This November, we have the chance to make a change. The Republican Party is committed to paying the American people more than simple lip service about budget and fiscal issues that are so important to our nation right now. If you are concerned about the national debt skyrocketing to the moon and beyond, you can make a difference. Now is the time to get motivated, get involved, and restore common sense to government. November starts now!

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Jul 30 2010