Obama Fulfills His Role as National Professor

America is getting a very valuable lesson in politics courtesy of Professor Barack Obama.

How often have you dismissed campaign rhetoric? Nearly all politicians (or potential politicians) say things while on the campaign trail. Only rarely will they enact or follow through on their promises once in office. Between kissing babies and excoriating their opponents, they always offer up grand plans that ususally dissipate in the cold light of political realities once they reach office.

It's like a game. You know that once in office, you won't see the same firebrand that whipped crowds into a voting frenzy at the town square. You expect a much more subdued public official than campaigner.

It's the American Way. Or at least it was prior to the arrival of Barack Obama.

Psychologically, there's a reason for that: politicians generally have enormous egos. Their ego commands them to say virtually anything to achieve the goal of being elected. A chicken in every pot? Literally, we all know that won't happen, it's the underlying supposition that's designed to make the favorable impression on the voting populace.

Over the years, we've built up a kind of national immunity to campaign rhetoric. We dismiss it the day after election day, sort of like a used diaper.

Things are very different now. Eighteen months into the reign of Barack the Magnificent, we're finding out that he was deadly serious about some of the things he pledged while running for office. Nowhere is that more evident than in his response to the Deepwater Horizon tragedy.

Here's what I mean:



We allowed our national somnambulence to overtake us when we heard this. Of course, at the time, "global warming" or "climate change" had yet to be exposed as the grand fraud that it is. ClimateGate had yet to reveal the truth to the world that a small group of scientist were being paid to lie in order allow politicians to impose an agenda of societal and economic control in the name of "science".

Nothing else explains the reason that this statement from Obama didn't take his presidential bid to the bottom of the Gulf to rest alongside the broken pipe of the Deepwater spill. We just didn't think he was at all serious. How could someone who wanted to be President actually advocate the economic ruin of his country?

Obama's imposition of a moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico proves he's very serious when it comes to imposing his will on the unwilling public. Even though it was overturned by Federal Judge Martin Feldman, Obama intends to appeal it. Instead of standing down in the face of even more economic damage to the Gulf coast area already ravaged by the spill, Obama remains determined to stick to his campaign promise to make energy costs for his fellow countrymen "necessarily skyrocket".

This just might turn out to be a good thing for the country. For too long, the void between a politician's campaign promises and reality has been as big as the Grand Canyon. We're now waking up to the fact that there are elements within Washington that don't have best interest of the nation in their hearts and are doing their best to bring us to our knees.

I'm willing to bet that we, as a nation, will start paying closer attention to what campaigning politicians say from now on.

And that we'll start to take them at their word.

Obama Appoints Radical Environmentalists to Expert Panel Instead of Experts

As if we needed further proof that President Obama lives in a fantasy world of academic opinion, we see who he has appointed to a panel to investigate the Deepwater Horizon explosion and spill.

No one on this panel has any experience in the field of petroleum engineering. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Three of the panels' seven members are on record opposing offshore drilling; Bob Graham, Frances Beinecke, and Donald Boesch.

Are you surprised?

You shouldn't be, particularly in light of the other massive policy failures of the Obama administration. Obama seems to have a keen knack for picking the wrong person for advice. For example, he said the economists who provided the input into the Stimulus Bill claimed a "multiplier effect", that every dollar spent by Washington would result in the creation of $1.50 in the private sector. We have since learned that this has not happened. If this were true, then we'd be enjoying good times once more with the low unemployment figures prevalent during the Bush years despite 9-11 and two wars.

With three of the seven members of this panel demonstrating a bias against drilling, you can already guess what the conclusion of the panel will be, and it won't be favorable to America's real energy needs. This is by design, in case there are any who doubt why these particular members were chosen. Don't expect a dispassionate, objective collection of facts. Expect the opposite, much like the 9-11 Commission that very conveniently omitted the fact that President Clinton literally had Osama bin Laden in the crosshairs of a snipers' rifle, but declined to remove him for political reasons. Obama and his advisors have, once again, chosen to mollify their radical supporters on the left who want nothing less than a return to an 18th century way of life for the most advanced civilization on Earth.

One quote from the article above voiced by Frances Beinecke claims that the main cause of the spill is the tired trope that America is "addicted to oil". I've railed against this image of America as a junkie before. Not only is that statement an insult to the nation, it ignores reality. Further, it shows the ignorance of whomever utters it. This attitude has absolutely no place in a serious examination of this tragedy, particularly at the highest level of government.

I'll come right out and say it. We can do better than this. Mr. President, if you are to truly find the facts concerning the cause of this spill and prevent another disaster from occurring, it is imperative that your panel include industry experts in petroleum engineering and related industries, not radical, leftist environmentalists. Merely sharing your Marxist political views is not enough. It's almost as if you know that anyone inside the industry will most likely not be aligned with you politically.

We can see straight through your motives, Mr. President. This is one area where your administration is truly transparent.

This is a technical problem that requires technical solutions, not political rhetoric.

Obama's Oil Spill Speech - All We Expected and Less!

On Tuesday night, President Obama gave his first speech from the Oval Office. From behind the desk made from the British ship Resolute, he attempted to quell the public uproar over his bungling of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill currently emptying into the Gulf of Mexico and onto its' shoreline. The full transcript is here.

He began by reassuring the American public that he had been Johnny-on-the-spot since day one, appointing  Nobel Prize-winning physicist and Energy Secretary Stephen Chu to head a panel that consisted mainly of people with other high sounding titles but no actual experience in petroleum engineering. He promised that the spill would be 90% contained sometime in the coming days. Or weeks. Whenever.

He then laid out the clean-up plans, citing Admiral Allen as the point man and bragging that he's authorized some 17,000 National Guardsmen to the coast.

As the clean up continues, we will offer whatever additional resources and assistance our coastal states may need. Now, a mobilization of this speed and magnitude will never be perfect, and new challenges will always arise. I saw and heard evidence of that during this trip. So if something isn’t working, we want to hear about it. If there are problems in the operation, we will fix them.

Hmm, let's ask Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal if those problems have been fixed.

He then proceeds to the next part of the speech, which also just happens to be his favorite sport, right after golf- blaming George Bush.

The oil spill represents just the latest blow to a place that has already suffered multiple economic disasters and decades of environmental degradation that has led to disappearing wetlands and habitats.

Really? Could you please be a tad more specific, Mr. President? Where are these disappearing wetlands and habitats and what, precisely caused their disappearance? Why are we just now hearing about this?

The third part of our response plan is the steps we’re taking to ensure that a disaster like this does not happen again.

With a job-killing moratorium on drilling in the middle of the worst recession in American history. Well, that'll certainly do it, Sir.

I know this creates difficulty for the people who work on these rigs, but for the sake of their safety, and for the sake of the entire region, we need to know the facts before we allow deepwater drilling to continue.

Your concern will most certainly pay the rent and utilities for those affected, won't it? We should be glad this wasn't a plane crash. If it were, you'd probably impose a moratorium on all flights until we found the cause.

It's along about here that this speech degrades into radical, leftist, environmental talking points that serve no purpose other than to lay the groundwork for the passage of the job-killing Cap-and-Tax bill.

After all, oil is a finite resource. We consume more than 20% of the world’s oil, but have less than 2% 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.

Really, Mr. President? Then why are we finding vast reserves of oil in places where we know dinosaurs never roamed, like miles beneath the Gulf of Mexico? And the only reason we're running out of places to drill is that your radical progressive cohorts in Congress and the EPA have imposed so many restrictions on easily accessed oil that companies are forced to drill in increasingly inaccessible areas, a direct cause of this spill and it's subsequent damage.

For decades, we have known the days of cheap and easily accessible oil were numbered. For decades, we have talked and talked about the need to end America’s century-long addiction to fossil fuels. And for decades, we have failed to act with the sense of urgency that this challenge requires. Time and again, the path forward has been blocked – not only by oil industry lobbyists, but also by a lack of political courage and candor.

Mr. President, we are not "addicted to oil". If you were just a bit better informed and experienced, particularly when it comes to science and physics, you'd know that there isn't a better or more versatile substance on Earth. Nothing else comes close to it. The development of oil into plastics has been just one of the most beneficial industrial movements in history. So many things have been made from petroleum products that they are beyond the space of this blog to even begin to catalog. So your (and your radical environmentalist supporters) claim of being "addicted to oil" is just so much hogwash. And you know it.

When I was a candidate for this office, I laid out a set of principles that would move our country towards energy independence.

Would that be the principles that would make our utility bills "necessarily skyrocket" and bankrupt coal companies, putting scores of Americans out of work and decimating our standard of living? Those principles, Mr. President?

His closing point is a real doozy. Basically, he states that if we can put a man on the moon, then we can certainly begin to use alternative forms of  energy. Again, his single-minded focus on organizing communities works against him out here in the real world. It's as if we, the United States of American, are so stupid that we can't or won't find alternatives to oil.

Mr. President, if it were out there, we'd find it.

And thank you for your vote of confidence.

The Gulf Oil Spill Speech We Won't Hear Tonight

President Obama approaches a lectern which has no teleprompter. He pulls a small stack of index cards from his vest pocket and, facing the camera directly, begins his speech.

"My fellow Americans. During the past two months, our country has experienced the worst ecological disaster in our history. The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig resulted in the tragic deaths of eleven people. The well that was uncapped in that explosion has leaked massive amounts of raw crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico that is now reaching our shores. It has caused and will continue to cause many in the area to lose their livelihoods. Entire industries that depend on the bounty of the Gulf coast such as seafood and tourism will likely take years to recover, but recover they will.

I and others within my administration have tried to distance ourselves from British Petroleum for partisan political reasons, at times contradicting ourselves as we flail about trying to avoid the negative publicity and damage to my presidency that a spill of this magnitude would surely cause. I have since come to the conclusion that accidents do happen despite our best efforts, and in this case, finger-pointing is a useless exercise in political gamesmanship. I will no longer frame BP as a villain, as I have been informed that many American citizens and British subjects rely on the corporate health of BP to finance their retirement. The continued profitable operation of BP is a high priority for me.

The response by my administration has been anemic at best and has resulted in far more damage to the Gulf Coast and its residents than it should have. For this I truly apologize to the American people. We should have been ready for any catastrophe, as required by law. We have failed you.

In order to correct these grievous errors, I have asked for the resignations of Ken Salazar, Carole Browner, Lisa Jackson, Rahm Emmanuel, David Axelrod and Eric Holder. I expect your letters on my desk by tomorrow morning at the latest. They will be replaced by the best and brightest candidates who have real experience in the field of energy production and business in general. I now understand that radical political views make a poor substitute for concrete, effective action during a national emergency such as this.

In addition, I am directing the White House to formulate a national energy policy that insures that America will have abundant, inexpensive energy for the foreseeable future. This policy will recognize the vital role that oil plays in our economy and will make its harvesting easier and safer by moving drilling closer to shore where spills are more easily contained. I am also directing Congress to lift any moratoriums and restrictions on drilling and to immediately stand down on the American Power Act. Our new national energy policy will also ease the construction of new nuclear and coal-fired power plants by lifting restrictions that, for too long, have held us hostage to the whims of radical environmentalists.

In addition, I have waived the Jones Act and will welcome all who have graciously offered their help, as we have so often helped other parts of the world when disaster strikes. We have much work to do to minimize the effects of this disaster. We must and will return the beaches and shores of the Gulf to their original pristine condition and the lives of its residents to normal.

We will not let this accident deter us from a safe and secure energy future. Thank you and may God Bless the United States".

Staff attempts to revive the stunned members of the press in attendance.

Captain Kick-Ass Strikes Again - Incompetence on Parade

Just when you think the governments' response to the Gulf oil spill couldn't get any worse, along comes more bad news. What with all the unnecessary red tape keeping Louisiana from building berms to keep the oil out of the marshes and wetlands, boots on necks, no chemical dispersants thanks to the EPA, disaster responses that were never implemented, dead fish and birds, jobs lost, kicked asses and all, that Obama has escaped without too much damage to his reputation as a receder of seas and healer of Earth.

You would be wrong, petroleum breath.

Here comes news of an offer that shouldn't have been refused. It seems that the Dutch government wanted to help us in the recovery efforts by donating ships with oil-skimming booms. In addition, they also offered to help us build the berms that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal wanted.

Obama's response? Thanks but no thanks.

It's becoming painfully obvious to all save the most well-programmed of Obamabots that our President is in so far over his head that he has to look up to see the bottom. This situation has already eclipsed the Bush Administrations' perceived mishandling of Hurricane Katrina by exponential factors. One royal screw-up is followed by another, larger screw-up. With each new day dawns the reality that, yes Virginia, experience does matter, particularly when it comes to running the worlds' only superpower. How long we remain in that role is in doubt with our current leadership and its determination to see the country brought down a few notches.

While the focus for the Gulf Coast residents in on cleaning up the spill and reconstructing the areas' economy, the focus in Washington has been how this will play to Obama's political advantage. This disconnect between Obama and the American people, not just the ones in the Gulf, is becoming so pronounced that it can't be ignored any longer. Yesterday, WSJ Online's Dorothy Rabinowitz penned this jewel - The Alien in the White House. It's good and not too long. As they say, read it all.

One wishes for a leader with the brains to solve a real problem. One that doesn't involve wet fingers in the political winds to determine the right course of action. One that could graciously accept help from other countries in a spirit of cooperation and thankfulness.

One with, you know, some real experience.

Captain Kick-Ass to the Rescue!

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane!

No, it's Captain Kick-Ass!

Able to leap tall oil rigs in a single bound. Faster than a speeding golf ball. More powerful than Nancy Pelosi's gavel. A tireless public union servant, dedicated to untruths, injustice, and the progressive way.

Oh boy. Sorry kiddies, that's all the snark that Uncle Backwards can tolerate for one day.

It's a somewhat slow news day, so that usually presents a problem here. Do I post the latest poll showing Obama's approval numbers sinking like a rock again? Meh, that's too easy. I could do that almost every day.

Ooooh! How about all the Republican women who won yesterday's primary elections? Ok, that doesn't happen every day, so it's an option.

Wait! I've got it! How about all the lefty talking heads who are just now starting to realize that Obama is, shall we say, not quite up to the job of being President? Hmm, maybe not. After reading it, the author just claims Obama's a third term of Bush.

There's always the Gulf oil spill. Here's a good story about a company that decided to gear up for what should've been a no-brainer. They made a few miles of oil containment booms in anticipation that someone would buy it in order to protect the Gulf shore from the encroaching oil. Curiously, no one's buying it.

I guess I'll just have to be content with this little piece of effluence from the mouth of our Precedent. "I'm talking to Gulf experts so I'll know whose ass to kick."

Way to go there, Captain. I feel better already, don't you?

Of course, if we left it up to all the talking heads at the MFM, all we'd hear is about how Obama needs to lose his cool and go all gangsta on somebody's ass. Like that'll seal the leak in the Gulf. Instead, out here in the real world, what is needed is someone who understands that this is a highly technical disaster that can't be fixed with words. Or emotions. It takes many things that Captain Kickass just doesn't have, has never had, nor appears that he wants. Things like real managerial experience. A willingness to admit that he doesn't have all the answers. Listening to others who don't share his Marxist tendencies and could actually suggest that the government get out of the way and let those who do this for a living fix the problem.

Is the Gulf oil spill Obama's Katrina? As I've said before, you bet your light, sweet ass it is.

We Must Make a Decision About Oil

It appears that progress is being made to slow the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. A cap has been lowered that is capturing some of the leaking oil and that oil is being pumped up to a surface ship instead of into the water. Our prayers go with everyone who is working to fix this problem.

Meanwhile, above the surface, we have a larger problem. We must determine what we, as a nation, are going to do to secure our energy future when it comes to oil.

Radical environmentalists want us to abandon the use of oil altogether in favor of, uh, um, well, they don't really know. All they can say is that oil is bad and we shouldn't use any of it and point out that this disaster is a prime reason for us to not use any of that icky, oily stuff. The part of that argument that doesn't hold water is basically all of it.

These radicals have been at work for the better part of two generations to insure that we don't have a viable energy policy based on reality. They've infiltrated government and the private sector alike, crafting legal maneuvers that have essentially crippled our ability to be self-sufficient and free from foreign suppliers. The EPA seems to be the enemy of the people when it comes to the harvesting of oil for America. They wield enormous power and primarily use it to restrict oil drilling instead of opening up new areas of exploration and development.

They all say the same thing: we need to develop alternative means to generate energy, but when pressed for a truly viable alternative to the methods and substances we now use, they cite wind and solar power.

Now for the dirty little secret they seem all too happy to ignore: windmills only generate power when the wind blows, requiring methods to store electricity until it's needed. Ditto with solar and the sun. Neither one of these alternatives will enable one aircraft to take off, but you never hear that from the radical environmentalists, now do you?

I'm terribly sorry to tell them this, but their attitude just doesn't cut it any more.

Our national choice should be very clear. We need oil and we will need it for the foreseeable future. It is the best and most efficient substance that we've discovered so far, capable of being made into so many things that benefit mankind it would take volumes to catalog it all. It's in our best interests to insure that the harvesting and refining of oil is plentiful and safe. This means that we're going to have to eliminate the current mindset of oil as somehow foreign to the earth, since that's where it came from originally. In its concentrated form, it is certainly toxic and requires safe procedures to minimize the effects of contamination, especially of our water supplies. The procedures are not terribly complicated, nor are they beyond our capacity to implement. Better to have a spill on dry land than a mile beneath the surface of the Gulf, should a spill occur at all.

Our national mindset should be that we will harvest and refine oil as safely as possible. We need to drill in accessible places, which means on dry land, first. Only after exhausting those reserves should we then move to less accessible areas. We should have the old "can-do" spirit that once was part of the national phyche and say we're not going to let a few idiots keep us from having a cheap and abundant supply of oil.

We can safely drill for and refine oil. Now let's get out there and do it.

The Obama Administration - A Lesson in Misplaced Priorities

It's about time something got done to stop this oil gushing from beneath the Gulf of Mexico. The Obama administration is about to implement the "Shakespeare Kill" option to contain the spill that is now threatening the beaches of Florida after already coming onshore in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

In a bold move, President Obama has ordered Attorney General Eric Holder and a team of lawyers to the Gulf. After meeting with the Attorneys General of the affected states, they will then be lowered to the seabed at the site of the leak and will be pumped into the well to stop the leak.

What? That's not why they're there?

Then what the hell are they doing? Do they think they can stop the spill by waving an injunction at the TV monitor attached to the live camera? Yeah, that'll stop it.

Folks, this is what you get when you elect someone who has no experience in anything other than academia. .

(courtesy of Michael Ramirez at IDB, and Pajamas Media)

Obama's insistence that all things can be solved by the government is on display in this debacle. After all, Washington put a man on the moon, didn't it? There weren't any private engineers or technicians who worked on the space program, right? They were all NASA employees. So, there.

Shit, even I can't keep up this snark for very long. My Snark-O-Meter has now become a pink blur where the needle used to be.

In crafting an effective response to this ecological disaster, we've seen everything done that a lawyer knows how to do: bluster, excoriate, castigate, accuse and threaten. None of which do one thing to solve the problem of thousands of barrels of oil leaking per day. You would think, with the history of safe drilling that we've enjoyed for over 40 years, there would be someone with the expertise and equipment to effectively cap this well. Failing that, you'd think that there would be plans in place to at least minimize the effects of the oil and keep it out to sea.

Well, there was a plan. It was put in place after the Exxon Valdez spill. It involved ships with booms on them to corrall the oil and burn it out at sea. What happened to that plan and why wasn't it implemented within the first few days of the spill?

Here's another oddity. Federal plans call for sand berms to be erected to prevent the spread of oil into wetlands and marshlands. Lousiana Governor Bobby Jindal is still waiting for approval to start the construction of the berms, but has yet to get the go-ahead from the government. The same government that President Obama famously bragged has been on the job since "day one."



It's not like President Obama doesn't know what to do. As Senator, then candidate Obama, he didn't hesitate to tell the Bush administration that he could do a much better job of handling natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

Now the shoe is on the other foot. Feels kinda funny, don't it, Mr. Obama.

Congress Leaps Into Action on Gulf Oil Spill with... a Tax Hike on Oil

Ladies and Gentlemen, you are witnessing hisory. There's really no other way to describe the swift action taken by the Obama administration as the worst environmental disaster in a generation unfolds. While oil gushes from the seabed beneath the Gulf of Mexico and is reaching the coastal estuaries and fisheries that are the lifeblood of the region, our brave and intrepid President responds by... wait for it... holding a political fundraiser in California for radical leftist Babs Boxer. (I'd link it, but it kept crashing IE).

While seemingly everyone within driving distance of the Gulf coast is there helping the cleanup efforts, this administration is busy putting it's boot on the throat of British Petroleum, holding them accountable and basically, well, holding them, um, accountable. It's very likey that unless this situation is brought under control quickly, BP won't be in business in two years.

But that's not going to stop Obama and his rapid response team of lawyers.

As if it weren't doing everything in its' power to stop the flow of oil into the Gulf, Congress is poised to unleash its most potent weapon in this disaster: a tax hike. That's right, those nasty oil droplets will shudder in fear when lawmakers gather to quadruple the tax on a barrel of crude. The widely recognized Expert on Everything, Harry Reid, said that "Taxpayers will not pick up the tab." Of course, we all know that no tax levied on a private company is ever passed along to consumers, don't we, Harry?

There are some secondary players who say they need "real help" down there in Cajun Country. Somebody named Bobby Jindal has been making a little noise about the slow reaction to the spill. He "says" he needs some kind of environmental approval for something he wants to do, like building some sort of berm for the oil to land on first instead of marshland, but, because he's just a governor, he should know he doesn't hold a candle to the awesome awesomeness of the glorious Federal Government when it comes to halting the flow of Mother Natures' forces.

However, there are some ne'er-do-wells who just don't see the awesomeness that is Obama. Like ABC, CBS, and NBC. But what do they know? How can you expect media companies who won't even do the most rudimentary investigation of a presidential candidate to be credible sources of information?

The American People know just how hard it is to be President and they all approve of the things this administration is doing to stop this spill and clean up the mess, don't they?

A Few Questions for Harry Reid

Never let a crisis go to waste. It's Rahm Emmanuels' mantra and it also serves the public well, as we get a chance to watch politicians distort the truth and pander to their special interest groups. In this case, it's Harry Reid. In an embarrassing speech on the Senate floor, he had this to say:

"Wall Street isn’t the only place where a reckless pursuit of profits has proved destructive..."

"Their greed led to 11 horrific and unnecessary deaths. It has harmed an enormous tourism industry, threatened business at countless fisheries and disrupted life for many along the Gulf Coast. As the pollution grows worse, those consequences will only compound."

Video here. (But be sure to watch it on an empty stomach.)

Well, Harry, it seems you have a genuine flair for the blatently obvious. You left out a few details, though, such as why it took nine days for this disaster to be declared an emergency. Also conveniently missing was the government's disaster response team that was devised as a direct result of the Exxon Valdez spill you noted. Why wasn't that implemented on the first day, Harry?

Harry, you also don't mention why that rig was there in the first place. Wasn't it your regulations that prevented the harvesting of oil on land and forced oil drilling to move further and further out to sea? Don't you control where oil can be harvested, not those evil, greedy oil executives, Harry?

Harry?

Harry?

Bueller?

It's precisely this kind of rhetoric that serves no purpose in American politics. How does bashing a large corporation that provides a vitally important service help anything, especially when they are doing their best to stop the leak? Does Harry really think that his empty words will help stem the flow of oil from the seabed? Or bring back the 11 oil workers who tragically lost their lives at sea?

One wonders why Reid doesn't try to actually do something to make oil drilling safer, by, say, lifting the nonsensical restrictions on land drilling, where the potential damage from the spill won't affect the shoreline. That's just one idea, but that's what many Americans consider a viable alternative: it's a real solution to a dangerous problem. One that would be far more worthy of time and effort than Harry's vapid little speech.

Here's one final question for today, Harry.

Why is your approval rating so low?