Hungary Bonds Hit Junk Status

The Euro zone is in trouble. Hungary pulled the sale of their public debt in three-year bonds. Could not afford the yields over nine percent. Meanwhile, Standard & Poor’s downgraded Hungary’s bonds to junk status.

‘Too big to fail’ is one thing. Try this, ‘Too big to save.’

The teachable moment here is, unless we turn this ship around, you’re looking at our future by looking at the economic situation in Europe today. Good too for the Brits continued refusal to adopt the ‘solution’ the European Union has in mind. It’s best not to board a ship while it is sinking. Besides, they have their own problems.

Where ‘Street Money’ Comes From

Who in their right mind (no pun intended) believes that a two-month extension of the raid on the Social Security ‘trust fund’ will have any effect on job creation? If taking money from what senior citizens and the disabled depend on will create jobs, then where does it end?

House Republicans totally botched the issue by accepting Obama’s premise that extending the tax cut would create jobs by wanting to take it out to 12 months instead of just two. That Obama did not want a 12 month extension proves that point.

Speaker Boehner blew it by not framing the issue for what it really is. The gross amount of $160 is nothing more than street money given out by the community organizer and paid for by (that 99%) senior citizens and the disabled.

The Department Of Energy’s Record Of Failure

Aside from using the price of gas, heating oil, and electricity as a measure, take a look at the statistics of how well served the folks are by the Department of Energy.

Under President Jimmy Carter, The ‘Department of Energy’ was instituted on August 4, 1977. Its purpose was to lessen U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

Imports: In 1977, 8,565,000 barrels of oil (net) per day, or 37.3%.  For 2009, 9,667,000 barrels per day, or 51%

Continue reading The Department Of Energy’s Record Of Failure

Obama’s Energy, National Security Dilemma

If there’s one thing people are growing tired of in Washington it is the lack of will to solve problems by kicking those problems down the road and calling it a solution. That is where we are with the Keystone XL Pipeline project.

All the studies of the pipeline are done. Our Canadian neighbors are not happy that Obama chose to delay his decision on the pipeline until after the 2012 election. Senate bill S.1932 is Republican’s attempt to force the president’s hand before the election, calling for a decision from the Sec. of State within 60 days.

The bill would:

  1. Establish congressional affirmation that Keystone XL is good for job creation, economic growth, and national security;
  2. Require the President, through the Secretary of State, to issue a permit within 60 days to allow the Keystone XL project to move ahead, unless he finds that it’s not in the national interest;
  3. Require the permit for Keystone XL to contain strong and specific environmental protections and protect states’ rights;
  4. Require the federal permit to recognize an alternative route approved by Nebraska, protecting their ability to shift the route of the pipeline to avoid the Sand Hills area, while not holding up construction elsewhere;
  5. Concludes more than three years of federal review by deeming the Final Environmental Impact Statement to be adequate.

Where President Obama is concerned, his re-election takes precedent over the national interest. Because if he were to approve the pipeline, he would alienate his environmental base and risk losing their campaign contributions. If he rejects it before the election, he puts BIG LABOR (labor unions are in favor of the pipeline) on the ropes and risks losing their support.  To him, putting off the decision until after the election is his way of voting present and doesn’t risk a dime of campaign contributions or support from either the environmental or labor union special interests.

If he rejects it, how could he explain to the American people why the nation doesn’t need 700,000 barrels a day of Canadian crude and 140,000 high-paying jobs? After all the green-energy bankruptcy scandals (BrightSource, Solyndra, etc.), he can’t say with a straight face how green energy is the answer to today’s energy problems. His own Energy Information Administration . . .

projects that most petroleum-based and non-petroleum based liquid fuels — including those derived from fuels such as coal, biomass, and natural gas — will continue to be used for transportation over the next two decades.

At a time when our economy is struggling and real unemployment is north of 11 percent, a truly shovel ready project like this means over a hundred thousand jobs nationwide. 14,000 in Oklahoma alone according to Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), ranking Republican on the Senate Environment Committee.

In my state of Oklahoma alone, we’d be creating 14,000 jobs with the Keystone pipeline. Existing pipeline infrastructure can’t accommodate the current volume of crude oil, which makes us more dependent on imports and vulnerable to increasing prices. The Keystone pipeline will improve both the inbound and outbound flow of crude oil at Cushing, OK.

Speaking to the President’s speeches of lessening U.S. dependence on Middle East oil and creating jobs, Inhofe continues . . .

There’s not one piece of legislation in the House or Senate right now that would do more to achieve both of these goals than this Keystone bill that we are introducing today.

If you think we don’t have an energy problem, consider this. Bill Clinton opposed ANWR exploration because, he said, it would take 10 years to get anything out of it. That was nearly 20 years ago and ANWR is still closed. As recent as five years ago, people in the Northeast United States were suffering from a lack of heating oil. (84 percent of heating in the NE comes from oil.) Back then, Joe Kennedy’s oil company accepted discounted heating oil from the hemisphere’s idiot, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, to ostensibly ‘help’ poor people in the United States. A political move to give then President Bush a slap in the face.

All the green energy talk and environmental lobbies have managed to do to solve the NE problem is . . . nothing. Five years later and we have headlines like this one, ‘Northeast states cut heating aid to poor.’

If there ever was a case to increase oil production, I think people going without heat or food would make a compelling case. Even though these are the people Obama champions on the campaign trail, he officially ignores them in The White House.

National security meets foreign policy

While we’re on the subject of oil independence, let’s take a look back to the Carter administration and the long lines at the pump, the gas rationing, and OPEC’s embargo that caused it all.

Jimmy Carter was forced into getting a spine and came up with the Carter Doctrine. It was supposed to ensure protection of Middle East oil. Carter declared that the United States would consider any attempt by an outside force to gain control of the gulf region an assault on U.S. vital interests, and would be considered an act of war that would be repelled by military force if necessary. Carter also invented the Cabinet position of the Department of Energy which, thanks to environmentalists and big government statists, was and is a dismal failure.

Today, the Iranian situation is still volatile. They are making threats via military exercises to close the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic. With the Keystone Pipeline project on the table, and people in the Northeast  being left in the cold, and Iran threatening to cut off oil to most of the world, how does him voting present on the Keystone Pipeline work for you?

So far, except for ‘social justice,’ there is no Obama Doctrine.

Fundamental Change In America

The stockings were hung on the bridge with care, with hope that a job soon will be there.

Now that President Obama is on another Hawaiian vacation, he must think his work as ‘job creator’ is finished.  He was, after all, the one who said that he ‘will not rest’ until everyone in America has a job.

Todd, Walter, and the others at the Davis Highway I-10 overpass don’t believe his job is done.

The first step in real job creation begins when Obama loses his.

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Not On Virginia Ballot

Only two candidates for Virginia’s Republican primary will be on the March 6 ballot. They are the ones who have done it before, Gov. Romney and Rep. Paul.

Wazzupwidat? If not getting on the Virginia ballot is any measure of the candidates’ leadership, they’re in trouble.

Gingrich is one of five candidates that failed to make the Virginia ballot, but you wouldn’t know that from the AP title:  Gingrich fails to qualify for Va. primary ballot

US Growth Revised Down For Third Quarter

The US economy grew at a slower rate than initially thought in the third quarter after personal spending was less than expected. Consumer confidence is right where Obama wants it. In the toilet.

What this means to liberals is the government must take more money from the private sector and give it to someone (including campaign contributors) who did not earn it so they can spend it instead. Being tied to this social justice (Socialist) narrative like they are, there simply is no place in Obamanomics for economic growth to occur in the private sector.

Link: US growth revised down for third quarter – FT.com.

Obama’s Role In Egypt’s Turmoil

The Arab Spring in Egypt is apparently going as planned. Not by those who actually wanted freedom or some form of democracy, but by those who want to extend Sharia law. The people wanting freedom, including Coptic Christians, are being killed and beaten unmercifully.

Egypt’s military is replete with the radical Muslim Brotherhood who shares responsibility with President Obama for the Arab Winter. This video shows you the kind of freedom that President Obama is “responsible” for.

Obama sowed the seeds, stoked the fire, then disappeared, allowing the Muslim Brotherhood to take over. It’s like community organizing at the country level.

Link: Credit Obama, Not the Bush Administration, for Seeds of the Egyptian Revolution