President Obama was in Chile today and answered questions for the first time since U.N. authorized military action in Libya began.
Some of what he said was ‘we can’t simply stand by with empty words.’
In the real world, what goes around comes around. The President is very convincing when he is speaking and has had the media hypnotized for years.
Anyone with a memory of the 2008 campaign will remember Sen. Obama criticizing Sen. Clinton for her ‘words, just words. Follow the link, you decide who owns empty words.
Oh there I go again, picking on President Obama. Not exactly. But the media is doing their best to hold him harmless for higher energy prices. It’s just a shame that circumstances beyond his control continue to deal him a losing hand.
On the road to a national energy policy, President Barack Obama is hitting pothole after pothole.
‘On the road to a national energy policy?’ Not only has he taken the wrong turn. He is lost. His idea of an energy policy is to not use it. And by all means, don’t get it. Keep on buying it from the Middle East, Russia, and Venezuela. There’s a plan. Make the cost of gasoline so high that it will cripple the economy. Small price to pay to push technologies that do not yet exist in any practical supply.
First, worries over coal-burning plants’ role in global warming prompted Obama . . .
Worries? What worries? By some divine providence, the media ignored candidate Obama’s thoughts on an energy policy where coal is concerned. Candidate Obama said that his Cap and Trade legislation would make it difficult, if not impossible for coal burning electrical generating plants to operate.
[I]f somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted. That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel, and other alternative energy approaches.
Half of the electricity in the United States comes from coal fired electric plants.
and other Democrats to look more favorably on offshore oil and gas exploration.
Right. That’s why, oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico is still on hold, against court orders to the contrary, nearly a year after the crises that he didn’t let go to waste. And seven months after the Deepwater Horizon leak was plugged. That’s a pothole?
Next came a warmer embrace of nuclear power as part of a possible broad political agreement . . . Now the crisis in Japan is throwing a shadow over nuclear energy worldwide.
Right. And a year before the current crisis in Japan, Obama cut the funding for the only approved site for the disposal of nuclear waste. The Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository.
Making matters worse for Obama, a spike in U.S. gasoline prices is angering Americans just as his re-election campaign cranks up. Experts say gas price fluctuations have almost nothing to do with the tragedy in Japan or the Gulf oil spill. But that hasn’t stopped Republicans from lumping various issues together and using them to club Obama.
There’s a really big wagon. Rising gas prices are not his fault. He’s just having a run of bad political luck. Is that what the media, and Democrats, were saying when Bush was in The White House?
In reality, Obama could cause the world market of oil and gasoline to fall overnight, simply on the announcement that he intends to make the United States an oil producer instead of an oil buyer. That would be a part of an energy policy to embrace.
Pointing out the obvious is characterized as taking ‘cheap shots.’ The media takes the Democrat points that, if you point out that stopping oil and gas exploration and development, and if you point out that relying on technologies that are not yet practically available are major factors in rising costs and reasons for instability in the market, then you’re taking a ‘cheap shot’ at President Obama.
“As long as our economy depends on foreign oil,” Obama said, “we’ll always be subject to price spikes.”
So don’t worry. Be happy.
He called for “a comprehensive energy strategy that pursues both more energy production and more energy conservation. We’re working to diversify our entire portfolio with historic investments in clean energy.”
President Obama just said last week that we are using less energy, as if that is a good sign of conserving and using less. Here’s a clue. We are using less because our economy is slowing down. You can’t have both a growing economy and less energy consumption. All the ‘historic investments in clean energy’ are fine, but not at the expense of exploiting our own fossil fuel resources.
The problem here is our President is not the leader America, and the media, had hoped he was. If he were a leader, he would be the one leading America around those potholes, or fixing them and moving forward. Not portraying him, and us, as innocent victims.
Oh this is rich. Calling out the left-wing blog Huffington Post for ‘unprofessional and unethical practices,’ the CWA is asking writers to boycott the blog and to not cross that ‘electronic picket line.’
The Newspaper Guild is calling on unpaid writers of the Huffington Post to withhold their work in support of a strike launched by Visual Arts Source in response to the company’s practice of using unpaid labor.
The HuffPo has been called out lately for using the work of reporters and news outlets in their entirety. You know, like stealing the work of others to make it look like your own production. One step above plagiarism. And now for their use of ‘unpaid writers.’
The HuffPo has been doing this sort of stuff from the beginning. So why this action now? Well, now that AOL has purchased the Huffington Post, they suddenly have very deep pockets. The union is saying, if you want us to go away, pay us for our work.
President Obama, never one to duck an issue, is appearing to take on a more adult posture at problem solving. From not being the first to the microphone anymore to that of letting others deal with it. White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer calls it staying above the fray. The media calls it keeping a low profile. I call it ducking when it is politically expedient to duck.
Ever ready to jump in front of the news, as in the Cambridge, Mass incident between black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and white Cambridge, Mass. police Sgt. James Crowley, who “acted stupidly,” and inject himself into the business of the state of Wisconsin by saying it is “an assault on unions,” President Obama missed his golden opportunity at Friday’s news conference to make a statement about the goings on in the Wisconsin state house. After all, it consumed the news media all week/month long, culminating in the passage of the budget repair bill that state Democrats fled the state for. The protests were orchestrated in part by Obama’s Organizing for America and other union bullies. Bullying is OK when it works for BIG LABOR you know.
One take on why Obama failed to talk about it was that the polls suggest that the public does not support it or that he should not be involved in a state issue. Or both. To be sure, if he thought he could make hay out of it, he would have brought it up. If he thought it would hurt his chances of re-election, he might stay ‘above the fray.’ But what is the excuse of the press corps to not ask one question about it? To think that there was no collusion between the press corps and the administration requires a suspension of dis-belief. If not just good old-fashioned Chicago style threats to intimidate the press corps from asking about it. Fact is, no one did.
The Left can’t be too happy with Obama’s new low profile either. They expect him to be in Madison with the demonstrators. Like he said he would do when he was in campaign mode. Try this question that was not asked. Mr. President, critics in your own party are frustrated that another campaign promise seems to have gone by the wayside. What do you say to those who want you to go to Madison and show your solidarity with the labor union? (like you said you would do during your campaign?) The latter part is pure fantasy that he would ever be put on that spot. You know if he was an R, that’s the way the question would have been delivered. But I digress.
Here’s Rush Limbaugh’s take on it . . .
All right. It’s official. There were no questions on Wisconsin asked of the regime at the press conference today. Now, come on, folks, please. It’s only been the rallying cry of the Democrat Party. We’ve only had Obama joining the debate saying we shouldn’t vilify or denigrate public sector union people, they’re our neighbors and so forth. He got involved. It’s his website, Organizing for America, that organized all of the spittle-flecked protesters that were out there. Not one question. Not one statement made by Obama. Again, let me tell you what this means. I’ll explain it by doing it the opposite way. Had there been questions and had there been answers, had Obama made a statement, it would have meant that the polling data was clearly on his side, that the Republicans were really taking it in the shorts in the polls, and that it was a golden opportunity to hammer this whole business of destroying collective bargaining rights for unions.
If they had polling data that suggests that the Democrats won big in this thing that would have been 90% of the content of this presser. And it didn’t even come up.
The president and his handlers certainly have their hands full, both here and abroad. Makes me wonder who has the tougher job? Obama acting as President of the United States or his handlers trying to make an empty suit look as though there is something in it?
Remember those ‘two Americas’ that John (the Breck girl) Edwards was talking about in the 2004 presidential campaign? The rising prices of crude oil, now north of $104 per barrel, and gas at the pump north of $3.50 (and 9/10) a gallon, and rising by about a dime a week got the attention of the New York Times with this front page analysis.
The highlights . . .
Rising Gas Cost Finds the Nation Better Prepared.
The increase in energy prices is beginning to resemble the rise in 2008. But this time, the American economy may be better prepared for higher fuel costs.
While the latest surge in energy prices is likely to cause some pain and slow the recovery from the recession, economists say the spike is unlikely to derail the rebound unless prices rise a lot further.
One big reason is that consumers and businesses have learned lessons from the last oil shock. … Industries like airlines and trucking, which are most severely affected by fuel prices, have passed on their higher costs almost immediately instead of waiting for the price increases to hammer profits.
And much of the rest of the United States economy is far less dependent on oil than it used to be.
A fascinating and in-depth analysis of the high gas prices that took the combined efforts of five reporters. So you know it must be complete and comprehensive.
Harken back to the high gas prices under the Bush administration which, according to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), was blamed on the Bush administration and the fact that there were ‘two oil men in The White House.’ Today, it is apparent from the New York Times that the cost of crude and gas have nothing whatsoever to do with Washington.
A person associated with the Tea Party was arrested today after calling in a bomb threat to a fundraiser for Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Miami Beach on Friday.
No wait! Correction!
There was a bomb threat, but it wasn’t at Wasserman Schultz’s fundraiser where President Obama was the ‘special guest.’ No, this bomb threat was made by far Left protester Patrick J. Knauf, 43, of Eau Claire. And he made it last Wednesday at an aviation business in Eau Claire just hours after Governor Scott Walker spoke there. According to police, he had been protesting Governor Scott Walker all week.
What? You mean you hadn’t heard about it in the media? Wonder why?
In what would otherwise hands-down qualify for the M.R.I.O.T.D. award, what President Obama said today about congress continuing to fund what he deems as his government goes way beyond ridiculous into the absurd.
In a statement Wednesday, the president called for immediate budget negotiations between Congress and the White House, with Vice President Biden, Chief of Staff William Daley and Budget Director Jack Lew playing a role.
“I’m pleased that Democrats and Republicans in Congress came together and passed a plan that will cut spending and keep the government running for the next two weeks,” he said. “But we cannot keep doing business this way. Living with the threat of a shutdown every few weeks is not responsible, and it puts our economic progress in jeopardy.”
Mt. [sic] Obama said a long term agreement “should cut spending and reduce deficits without damaging economic growth or gutting investments in education, research and development that will create jobs and secure our future.”
“This agreement should be bipartisan, it should be free of any party’s social or political agenda, and it should be reached without delay,” he added.
President Obama must be suffering from an early onset of Alzheimer’s or that’s not tobacco in his cigarettes, because this entire issue of pressing for CR’s to avoid a government shutdown was caused by him. His lack of leadership in pressing his Democrat-controlled congress last summer to propose a 2011 budget is why we are where we are today. He is really the one to talk about not being responsible, and of putting ‘economic progress’ in jeopardy. Do you see any economic progress?
Calling for a meeting with Joe BFD Biden, William Chicago Daley, and new Budget Director Jack Lew about his budget mess is his way of making an empty suit look like there’s something in it. Calling meetings and committees to ostensibly solve problems is no substitute for leadership. You can be assured that the media will not notice.
All this, and then some, could have been avoided if congress and the president had done their job last year. But it is no accident that a 2011 budget was not submitted last year. Had he submitted a budget that included doubling the size of government like he has done and increasing the debt like he has done and is planning to do, the mid-term elections would have included a new majority party in the senate as well.
To be fair, there are a couple possibilities for why there was no 2011 budget. One is gross incompetence on the part of the president and the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives under Speaker Pelosi. The other is that it was a political calculation to not have one, which would have shown Obama’s cards for what he had in store in 2011. I’d go with the latter. Unrestrained by a budget, spending like there’s no tomorrow to prop up Big Labor and kill the economy by burdening future generations with debt becomes much easier.
Neither possibility is good. Not for them or America. You might expect it of a community organizer, but not the President of the United States. Which one works for you?
You may have heard that President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have decided not to enforce the Defense Of Marriage Act, DOMA.
Jeff Lord at American Spectator has a funny piece today. Sarah Palin’s new attorney general, Mark Levin, has just decided that Roe v. Wade is unconstitutional. They’re just gonna decide not to defend abortion anymore, it’s silly, they’re just gonna effectively pretend it doesn’t exist. Can you imagine the outcry?
Very extraordinary, and particularly from a liberty point of view. There’s a pattern of abuse here. Obama is encouraging lawlessness in Arizona. In fact, he is suing Arizona for defending their own sovereignty against the illegal alien invasion. He is encouraging lawlessness in Wisconsin. He is undermining state governments everywhere he can, particularly if they’re battleground states, which Wisconsin is. He’s ordering his Justice Department not to defend a federal law. Nobody has said the law is unconstitutional other than Obama and Holder, and they don’t have the power to do that. Obama is ignoring court orders he doesn’t like, such as drilling moratorium laws in the Gulf of Mexico, and, of course, DOMA. He is ignoring judge Vinson’s ruling that the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare) is unconstitutional.
Let’s not forget Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency. Which is in effect legislating now when it comes to carbon dioxide, imposing rules on citizens that Congress has not passed. In fact, rules that Congress has refused to pass. Then there is Obama’s use of Czars simply to bypass cabinet offices, accountable to no one, and they’ve never been confirmed to anything by anyone.
Alexis de Tocqueville referred to this as soft tyranny. What is soft tyranny? Obama using executive orders, regulations, and now withholding the defense of laws he doesn’t like to run the government out of his office.
The only comments in the media are whether this will hurt Obama’s poll numbers. If there were an R behind his name instead of a D, the media would be talking impeachment. What we are witnessing here is a deterioration of our society, our norms, our systems. Ignoring the oath he was sworn to uphold is no trivial matter. And by not calling the president out on it, the media is playing the part of the enabler. The willing accomplice.
You won’t find this in the local paper. A search in the Pensacola News Journal (a trade union shop) comes up empty for an organizing attempt of city employees. The only place I saw it mentioned is in a local blog called Progressive Pensacola.
The literature from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has a catchy phrase. ‘AFSCME – We make FLORIDA happen.’ I have another take on it. It’s more like ‘We help make FLORIDA broke!’
Now there’s a really bad idea. Unions, aside from being useless nowadays, only spell more costs for the city. And consequently, more costs for the taxpayers that currently pay their wages and benefits. As if we are flush with cash. If working for the city is so bad, why are applicants falling over themselves trying to get a job with the city? The high demand and desirability of getting a city job seems to belie the need, as far as employees are concerned, for a union. On the other hand, it’s not hard to understand why AFSCME would not want to get more dues paying members. They are a business and an industry just like any other.
This move, like all union attempts to raid and then soak an employer, serve only to take your money, if you are one of the employees, and give some of it to the union. And increase the cost of whatever it is that is produced. Which is ultimately paid for by you, the consumer. But you are rich. You can pay it, right?
In general, labor unions had a useful purpose 50, 60, 70 years ago. But since then, employers got the message and don’t treat their employees like indentured servants. Instead, that’s what the unions intend to make of their members.
Consequently, they have contributed to their own demise. Because of their efforts and due diligence in improving working conditions and employee relations decades ago, employers nowadays got the message. Due to their successes decades ago, they have made themselves obsolete today.
But BIG LABOR does not care that unemployment is high. And that their collective bargaining, combined with their spending employee’s money on political campaigns, mostly to save their sorry underfunded benefit packages has caused states and cities all over the country to look at insolvency, if not another government bailout. Are you ready for another government bailout? Andy Stern and Barack Obama are.
Let’s be thankful that the city can employ as many people as they can right now. Raise the cost more and see if layoffs don’t occur.
So who benefits? Not the employees. Not the taxpayers. Just the labor union.
As far as running any enterprise goes, let alone the country, making a budget is something you do. Where the country is concerned, the 2011 budget was due last October. That is to say, before the mid-term election. President Obama gets an F for failing to do his job. There is no budget and no plans to make one. The talk now is about the 2012 budget. The president intends on flying by the seat of his big-spending pants with continuing resolutions for the rest of the year.
I’m not making excuses for the community organizer, but the fact is that had he submitted a budget that included doubling the size of government like he has done and increasing the debt like he is planning to do, the mid-term elections would have included a new majority party in the senate as well.
Is there no one left to hold this statist of a president to account?
Belly up to the counter. Politics are on the menu and Ross is on the grill.
