Obama Gets Outsmarted Again

When the Smartest President in History (TM) was inaugurated, many of us looked at his policies on energy. We knew it would be green jobs based even though green jobs have never really been defined. We knew he would possibly attack coal-fired power plants and natural gas, which he has done through the back door using the EPA. We suspected that he would give huge incentives for electric vehicles as well. But none of us ever saw the utter failure that his energy policies would become in just three years.

This week alone he has managed to alienate one of our dearest allies and neighbors by slamming the door on the XL Pipeline project that would have given us ethical, dependable oil for decades and now he was given the finger by the world's newest emerging economy; Brazil:

BUENOS AIRES — Off the coast of Rio de Janeiro — below a mile of water and two miles of shifting rock, sand and salt — is an ultradeep sea of oil that could turn Brazil into the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, behind Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The country’s state-controlled oil company, Petrobras, expects to pump 4.9 million barrels a day from the country’s oil fields by 2020, with 40 percent of that coming from the seabed. One and a half million barrels will be bound for export markets.

The United States wants it, but China is getting it.

Less than a month after President Obama visited Brazil in March to make a pitch for oil, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff was off to Beijing to sign oil contracts with two huge state-owned Chinese companies.

The deals are part of a growing oil relationship between the two countries that, thanks to a series of billion-dollar agreements, is giving China greater influence over Brazil’s oil frontier.

Let's go back to March, shall we? Obama essentially scuttled US drilling and instead pushed hard for Brazil's right to do so. He befuddled energy policy experts and put all of our eggs in one basket by cozying up to Brazil who then decided that Obama was not the man for them and ran off to make a deal with the Chinese. I guess having our next enemy edging into our hemisphere to loot natural resources is just A-okay with the Obama administration.

So let's summarize this. shall we? Obama sucks up to Brazil while simultaneously squashing our own oil exploration business. Brazil says no thanks and makes massive deals with the Chinese who will definitely consider this an embarrassment for the US. China edges in and essentially has cornered the market in a part of the world that we once threatened to go to war over if anyone tried to exert influence. Canada came calling and offered us a clean, safe supply of oil that would travel by pipeline to our refineries, thus reducing the amount of energy used to ship it by truck or boat. Obama grovels to his green constituency and quashes the pipeline deal. Canada is now talking to China about buying the oil that was almost given to us.

In other words, Obama has gone from making us the powerhouse in the world of oil refining and oil exploration into a second-tier player. I guess with Obama, losing out to the Chinese in every arena we challenge them is good for America.

More here.

Sunday Morning News & Notes

A little bit of snow followed by a little rain yesterday and we have an icy mess in South Jersey. Still, it was nice to wake up to some of the white stuff on the trees.

Anyway, here's what is happening in this crazy world:

-Rumors of Joe Pa's death spread over social media like wildfire last night. Apparently they aren't quite true. Man, the power of Facebook and Twitter is massive.

-Juan Williams is a conservative according to the bigoted, tax money grubbing folks at NPR. They can't pull the plug on that network soon enough.

-Now this is one scientific report I will whole-heartedly support.

-Terrell Owens could have been a legend in Philadelphia or anywhere else he played if he just acted like he cared about the city he played in or the team played for. Instead, it became the T.O. show wherever he went and he alienated everyone. looks like it's coming back to bite him in the ass. I'm trying to feel a little sympathy but it's just not happening.

-Chris Christie is well-positioned for a run in 2016 if things go awry for the GOP this year.

-Bill Maher admits he never read the SOPA, doesn't know what's in it but doesn't like it because he had some intellectual property stolen. Buddy Roemer and the dude from the Daily Caller set him straight as to the ramifications:

Newt Wins Big

Newt Gingrich crushed the field and has some momentum going into Florida but just how much is debatable. Are Republicans going to shoot themselves in the foot (again) and nominate a guy who's unelectable again the most beatable incumbent in decades? Maybe.

Here's the results:

Santorum had a respectable showing and should have made enough impact to at least be considered for the VP slot...or at least a nice contract with Fox.

Paul is done. The country just hasn't grasped the Paul Revolution and his angry horde of Paulistinians may be realizing that winning Internet polls is not the same as winning over real-life voters.

It's Gingrich and Romney down to the wire.

Update: Is Newt actually electable and have I figured it wrong?

Newt Pulls Away in SC

We're starting to see the problems that always affect moderate candidates in primaries happening to Romney. In all primaries when there's no incumbent running, the centrist candidates have to go far outside their comfort zone to appease the more hard core voters who actually get out and vote in their state's contests. Mitt is a fiscal conservative and a social moderate. When he tries to be anything but he looks like he's pandering and people pick up on that easily. Add to that he's a Mormon in a deeply evangelical state and you have what we are seeing today: a Newt surge.

People don't like Newt because he's Newt and a good candidate but because he's not Romney. The guy is a hypocrite and philanderer but the evangelical bloc thinks of him as one of them in a weird sense. Santorum would be the most likely guy to gravitate to but as a Catholic, he's still not one of them. Herman Cain may have done well there as well.

So we have a little momentum for Gingrich that will last until possibly Florida. It seems that the party has gravitated back to Newt after the interview with his ex-wife aired and people viewed it as a hit piece on him (which it was). He's got the victim card working for him going into a conservative state and he's playing that card with relish.

Hopefully Romney can make up some of the votes he's hemorrhaged over the last week but PPP has Gingrich up by double digits as of last night.

Biden Is Still the Reigning Gaffe King

So, the word is out that the movie dramatization of Game Change will portray Sarah Palin as a complete idiot and the worst selection for a running mate in campaigning history. But unfortunately, we got stuck with actual worst VP in history:

Vice President Joe Biden had his (5,400,321st--ed) “oops” moment Wednesday speaking in a 49er-crazed San Francisco when he told a crowd at a city political fundraiser that “the Giants are on their way to the Super Bowl.”

Biden spoke at a closed event in the city’s financial District at the Bently Reserve when he made the gaffe, according to a White House pool report released today.

The comment by Biden drew immediate “good-natured” boos from the crowd, according to the report by Josh Richman of the Oakland Tribune, who was the only local print reporter allowed to cover the event.

Generally the VP's job is to stand in for the president, back all his policies and attend overseas funerals. Not all are as active in the administration as, say, Dick Cheney was but he was the exception and not the rule since he was one who was qualified to ascend to the highest office. Generally they are dolts like Al Gore who hope to win the presidency simply by being the sitting VP. It says something about Reagan that he was so well liked, people actually voted GHW Bush in to keep his policies going but I digress.

Anyway, we have dumbass from Delaware trying to play to a crowd by using sports as a crutch and he can't even get that right. i mean, Joe, dude, you might as well go to NYC and say that "the Red Sox are on their way to the World series".

Obama is the most amateurish president in the last 60 years and perhaps even the one with the poorest grasp of policy but Joe Biden will go down as the single lamest VP in history. Yes, that include Agnew and Gore.

What a friggin' embarrassment.

Obama Proves His "Laser Focus" on Jobs was BS

Remember how Obama kept saying he was going to be focused constantly on jobs and do everything possible to create new one? That turns out to have been complete bullshit:

the Obama Administration rejected the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project on Wednesday, scuttling a key energy initiative that would have created an influx of badly-needed U.S. jobs, but one that has also riled environmentalists.
The news, which was first reported by FOX News Channel, sparked a fierce response from Republicans and proponents of the project.

The White House, which faced a February 21 deadline to make a final decision on the project, blamed Republicans for forcing its hand.

"The rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment," President Barack Obama said in a statement.

No, it wasn't the GOP forcing his hand, it was environmentalist's forcing his hand. He looked at the jobs situation and saw that it isn't going to get better and possibly may get worse. That left a decision; do what's best for the American people and okay a project that would have put thousands to work immediately or pacify a core constituency. For once he didn't vote present on a hard vote but instead voted against the majority of Americans and voted for his own self interest.

The pipeline was just about as "shovel ready" as any job could be and much more ready to go than any of the stimulus projects were. It would have ensured energy independence and allowed us to buy oil from a friendly neighbor and not have to trust the gouging Saudis or pray the Straits of Hormuz remain open and the Iranians don't restrict the flow.

This was a sop, plain and simple. A sop to his cronies in the environmental lobby.

Nice of Obama spokesman Jay Carney to twist the Nebraska governor's words to give himself cover too.

Tuesday Night News and Notes

What's up y'all?

Another mild winter day in New Jersey. I blame global warming climate change...and George Bush of course (that's still fashionable in some circles).

-Rick Perry made a really bad decision to run for president. To paraphrase Honest Abe: better to be quiet and thought a fool then to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Perry removed all doubt really quickly and now is polling third...in Texas! Dude, that's a meteoric meltdown.

-In the good news department; Obama is polling at 48% approval and only one incumbent has won reelection with such an anemic number. That would be Tricky Dick and Obama is no Richard Milhouse Nixon.

-Obama is no MLK either:

-Obamateur update: Obama's acting director of the OMB is a former employee at Bain Capital where everyone is all worked up because Romney worked there. The stupid line of attack was made thought up by Gingrich and Perry anyway.

-1,300 potential targets for Israeli/US covert operatives? This has got to be completely messing with the mad mullah's minds.

-Just a reminder, we still have heroes serving and protecting us.

Occupiers Preoccupied With Low Cash Flow

The Occupy Wall Street idiots are getting a hard lesson in reality when it comes to financing there inane "movement":

Occupy Wall Street—the movement built on protesting corporate greed and income inequality—is running out of money.

After raising more than $700,000 last fall, protesters who keep track of money for Occupy Wall Street reported this week that the group has about $170,000 in its bank account. Very few donations are coming in, they said.

"If we keep spending at the rate at which we have been doing, we will probably go broke in a month," said Haywood Carey, 28 years old, a member of the movement's accounting group

What a damn pity.

Perhaps if they hadn't reverted to liberal form and acted like a gaggle of morons they may have had more support and could have built themselves into a real operation. Perhaps if one of their kind had majored in business, finance or accounting they would have had an adult around to explain to them that taking a dump in public, whacking off in front of the world and booting hard drugs is a turn off to those who actually have a life. I mean, the list of offenses in staggering and they actually expected to raise money. Despite the support of members of Congress and a wink from Obama they've managed to squander it any good will and alienate everyone except each other.

Maybe if they tried the Tea Party method--cleaning up after themselves and not squatting (literally) in public parks that people like to use--they would have been received better.

So much for the OWS imbeciles being a force in the 2012 elections.

Good riddance.

Update: You know you've lost San Fran Nan when she compares you to a Tea Partier (or in her parlance I'm sure it's "tea bagger". Er, sorry to use tea bagger and Pelosi in the same sentence. Send me the bill for cleaning that puke that just ran down your shirt or ended up on your keyboard.

Newt Gingrich Exposes Himself as Complete Douchebag

We all knew Newt was mostly a douchebag but he's now gone full douchebag. From his days in the House to his subsequent lobbying and deals with Fannie and Freddie, he's shown that he is the ultimate Washington animal who will slither to anyone willing to throw him a signed check.

He rose quickly to the top of the GOP primary heap but went to the bottom even quicker once people had a chance to assess him and came away feeling like they just spent a few minutes with a dude who sells used cars in a run-down lot off County Road 27.

Newt has sunk even lower than I thought possible with his latest attacks. Hitting Romney from the left and skewering businessmen and corporations is despicable and to be honest, he has been exposed for the cretin he is because of it. Newt wouldn't understand how businesses are really run if it was explained to him by Sam Walton himself.

Today the WaPo gave him the dreaded four "Pinocchio's" for his 29-minute attack video on Mitt Romney and his affiliation with Bain Capital; a venture capital group.

Now don't for one second believe that the WaPo did this to protect Romney. Anyone with half their wits knows that Gingrich doesn't stand a chance of beating Obama should the unfortunate occurrence of him winning the nomination happen. The WaPo would, in most circumstances, be trumpeting Newt to help Obama. But the blatant attack, the hypocrisy and deception of it was too much even for that particular liberal DC rag.

Go away Newt. Go back to selling your soul and yourself for a paycheck like the dirty crack whore you are.

Allen West Sets MSM Straight on Marine Incident

The video of a few Marines pissing on dead Taliban has got the media in full Abu Ghraib mode. Any story that makes the military look bad is, in the eyes of our media betters, a story that deserves to be reported continuously.

This story has it all: hung-ho Marines demeaning the dead they killed and acting all macho, Americans acting like animals and video of the entire episode to boot. It's a media wet dream.

But Lt. Col. Allen West is having none of it and puts it in the proper perspective:

“I have sat back and assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.

“All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill. Does anyone remember the two Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?

“The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.

“As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.”

Amen to that, sir.

Yes, these Marines were wrong and deserve to be punished under military law. Instead, the MSM is firing up the Taliban by harping on this incident but refuse to report on the stonings of women and child rape by the Taliban because it doesn't want to incite them. Like the false reporting by Newsweek (a story that even the most simple minded journalist should have known was impossible) claiming a Koran was flushed down the toilet, the media never miss an opportunity to slam those who only wish to protect us.

For those who wish to know how bad fighting is in the war in Afghanistan, watch Sebastian Junger's documentary Restrepo and you'll get an idea of just why Rep. West is exactly right in his assessment.

Caucus Prediction

The Paulistinians are out in force so I see good things for Paul, which equals bad things for the country. Talk of going back to the gold standard and 9/11 being an inside job will be rife tonight as well as trying to convince the 0.01% of blacks who venture out into the cold Iowa night that their guy isn't really racist and those racist newsletters put out under the good doctors name were actually written by someone else and not even seen by him.

Should be fun.

Paul 25%

Santorum 22%

Romney 20%

Gingrich 14%

Other Balance

This should be a blast; having to explain why a crotchety old bastard who should have been tossed years ago is a winner in the first pseudo election of the year. Yea, the history of Ron Paul will be written about endlessly attached to the words racist, isolationist and gold standard.

Happy times.

Picture via this site.

Update: Romney over Santorum by 8 votes. Santorum's hopes will fade in NH and be rekindled in SC. Huntsman is banking everything on NH where Romney will win another close one. Perry is headed home to TX while Bachmann says she's hanging around for awhile. Newt faded to the second tier.

Wasn't Obama Supposed to Make the World Like Us Again?

You may remember back in this heady days of 2008 when the light bringer Obama promised us that once we elevated him to the highest office in the land he would automatically make the rest of the world our friends. He would accomplish this with his sheer force of will and high level intellectualism if I remember things correctly.

Since a little over half the voters screwed the rest of us and did indeed elect him, we've gone from okay to horrible. The only thing he's gotten Europeans to agree with him on is their joint hatred of Israel and bombing a second world Libya back into the 3rd world.

Now here we are with some German idiot in jail after committing $3-million worth of arson with a view of America that does not seem to be what The One intended:

The man who terrorized L.A. for three nights with a series of 53 arson fires turned out to be a 24-year-old from Germany identified as Harry Burkhart, at least according to authorities.

"I hate America" were the words he reportedly uttered after he was pulled out of his car during a traffic stop at Sunset Boulevard near Fairfax Avenue shortly after 3 this morning following another outbreak of fires in nearby West Hollywood.

Burkhart was booked into jail at 1:48 p.m. and held in lieu of $250,000, according to the L.A. County Sheriff's Department's inmate information database.

So we have what amounts to terrorism anywhere else in the world happening in our second largest city and by the perpetrators own words we know it's due to hatred of the US.

Well, I guess old Harry was just just getting us before we screwed over Germany like we did Poland and the Czechs in what amounted to appeasement to the Russians.

Tuesday Morning News and Notes

Happy new year y'all. This promises to be a year in which blogging will be easy since I'll have a plethora of material to pull from. We'll see a presidential race like never before with the race card being pulled repeatedly and for all manner of issues. We'll see the further implosion of the OWS crowd and we'll see changes in voting blocs with people voting even more in their self-interest than ever before.

Can't wait.

Here's some stuff you may have missed over the long holiday week:

-John Hawkins with 50 Most Obnoxious Quotes from 2011. Number 12 is entertaining.

-OWS can't seem to avoid stepping in the shit. Anti-Semitism will rear it's ugly head this year like we haven't seen in decades.

-Doug Ross is passing out some awards.

-Less than 33% of people self identify as being Democrats. That's a new low. As they say: success has many fathers but failure is an orphan. People are distancing themselves from failure in droves and it appears that the middle will be crucial once again.

-Fossil fuel extraction in North Dakota helps housing in Arizona. If Obama actually wanted to create jobs, he would immediately allow for construction of oil pipelines, reduce red tape on fracking and oil sands development and allow for more offshore drilling. Unfortunately he is deeply indebted to the environmental lobby so that ain't happening.

-Leon Panetta was sent from CIA to Defense for one reason only and that's to cut defense spending dramatically. $500-billion would be disastrous but $1-trillion would allow the Chinese to overtake us within a decade.

Alan Colmes Gives A Preview of Media in 2012

Alan Colmes has always been your typical beta male liberal. He was second fiddle behind Hannity on their show before Fox management realized that Colmes was just dragging the show down. He has a radio show, which can't be found anywhere on the dial and is still on Fox due to some feeling they owe him something or some other garbage reason. The dude is a great example of what happens when a guy gets picked on in school, has no chance at getting laid until he's 21 and has enough money to pay a hooker or get lucky with the ugly chick who's drunk at 2 AM grows older.

That said, the guy is a great bell weather for what we will see as liberal media lines of attack. He's linked in to whatever passes for the Journolist circle jerk club now where lib media folks decide what and what they will not discuss when it come to a particular topic.

However, it seems like Colmes jumped the shark today and went after Rick Santorum from an angle I expected but just not this soon:



Anyone who knows the story knows that Santorum did what he felt was right in a tough situation. His 2-hour old child died and he was devastated. He discussed what he should do with neonatal medical staff and decided to bring the dead child home so that his other children could have some time to bond and remember their sibling. Think about the state you would be in had your child died regardless of how long into the pregnancy.

In the view of most sane folks, you give someone a pass for their actions in that situation and you sure as hell don't use it as political ammo...unless you're a liberal scumbag like Holmes. I expected to see numerous stories about Santorum in the next week and I expected the issue of his dead child to be included but down in the story like the MSM always does when they want to get a particular touchy issue about Republicans out but not look blatant.

But not Holmes. He went right after it within the first minute of discussing Santorum. Rich Lowry rightly embarrassed him and Holmes did apologize but only because he was worried about losing his sweet gig on the number one news channel, not because he felt any remorse. I guess playing second fiddle to Keith Olbermann on a Al Gore's channel that's watched by no one was a horrifying thought.

More here and here.


No wonder Chris Christie bailed on this race. He knew the media would be even more nasty defending Obama since they sure as hell don't have any successful results to point to.