Energy

The Second Amendment

Brian Aitken, the New Jersey MAN SENTENCED TO SEVEN YEARS IN PRISON LAST YEAR FOR POSSESSING LEGALLY OWNED FIREARMS THAT WERE UNLOADED AND LOCKED IN THE TRUNK OF HIS CAR, is filing a civil rights suit against the state prosecutors who put him behind bars and the police officers who searched his car without consent, his attorney told The Daily Caller.
http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/09/brian-aitken-to-file-suit-against-new-jersey-officials-for-civil-rights-violations/#ixzz1G6zstK00



Sometimes you could swear the left doesn’t know that the Constitution has a Bill of Rights. And they obviously don't have any appreciation for the financial situation the country finds itself in.  Why in the world would this man be sentence to prison and incur the cost to New Jersey that the taxpayer incurred in those four months. 





Obama poll numbers down

No White House ever pays any attention to public opinion polls because that could imply the president shapes his actions to be approved, which would be a preposterous thing to believe.


But if Barack Obama did pay attention to his polls numbers, which of course he doesn't for the aforementioned reason, he'd have to be a little disappointed this morning. Or at least somewhat puzzled. Now that we're less than 20 months from the 2012 E-Day.


Obama's job approval numbers are down again, even without a viable announced Republican opponent. Even with the unemployment rate down a smidge to 8.9% (it was 6.9% when Obama was elected). Even with 192,000 jobs created last month. Even with Joe Biden out of the country.


According to the latest Gallup numbers, OBAMA'S WEEKLY JOB APPROVAL NUMBER WAS 46% THROUGH SUNDAY …..

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/03/obama-job-approval-down-gallup.html

George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, etc. all come to mind. 

Iowa: Union deal to cost state $415 million

Aitken, 27, was convicted of illegally transporting a weapon in August 2010, but WAS RELEASED AFTER FOUR MONTHS SPENT IN PRISON WHEN NEW JERSEY REPUBLICAN GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE COMMUTED HIS SENTENCE TO “TIME SERVED.”…..

UNION CONTRACTS NEGOTIATED IN RECENT MONTHS WILL MEAN ADDITIONAL WAGES AND BENEFITS FOR ALL STATE EMPLOYEES WOULD COST $415 MILLION over the next two years, state budget officials said Tuesday.


"That's huge," said David Roederer, budget chief for Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican.


One labor union contract for a 6 percent wage increase over two years, APPROVED BY FORMER GOV. CHET CULVER, A DEMOCRAT, WITHOUT A COUNTEROFFER, SET IN MOTION IDENTICAL INCREASES FOR THE STATE'S FOUR OTHER UNION CONTRACTS, STATE OFFICIALS SAID.


But the state could save $172 million in the two-year period if Branstad does not apply the wage increase provisions to upper-level state employees who are not covered by a union, such as managers and judges.

The $172 million includes the wage and step increases that are union-negotiated. It does not include the cost of health benefits.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110309/NEWS10/103090359/Union-deals-to-cost-415-million?odyssey=tabtopnewstextNewstopnewstextNews


Defuending NRP by the left

Conservative trickster James O'Keefe apparently HAS RON SCHILLER, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO'S CHIEF FUNDRAISER, ON TAPE CALLING TEA PARTYERS RACIST AND NODDING POLITELY WHILE HIS LUNCH COMPANIONS DECRY JEWISH CONTROL OF THE MEDIA. NPR's CEO resigned Wednesday over the scandal.


But what, exactly, does this say about NPR's journalism?


THE NPR EXECUTIVE ISN'T A REPORTER, COMMENTATOR, PRODUCER OR EDITOR. I'd hardly like my work to be judged based on the off-the-record, lunch-time commentary of a Post business executive uninvolved in its production.


And, yet, the fund-raiser does sell NPR's journalism, and, in the process, he makes its work a player in this scandal. HE INSINUATES THAT THOSE WITH WHOM HE'S MEETING -- two men who claim to be associated with a Muslim Brotherhood front group and who say they might want to give NPR $5 million -- WILL FIND SATISFACTION IN THE NETWORK'S COVERAGE, WHICH HE TERMS "FAIR." What does he mean? Does this reflect some covert biases he might know about at NPR, or just a fund-raiser's toadyish attempt to pull in $5 million? A bit of both?


That's the problem with this Sasha Baron Cohen-style, hidden camera gotcha "journalism" that O'Keefe and others conduct. One player in the act is purposefully outrageous. The other's response -- or lack thereof -- can seem pretty damning.


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2011/03/npr_executive_caught_on_camera_1.html



It appears we have another, “who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes defense?




Video: Teamster threaten cameraman

At any rate, Mr. Staroska is willing to stick his neck out for what he believes… and as you can see below, A UNION THUG WAS WILLING TO BREAK IT.


http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=42204

Civility anyone?



Ash Wednesday
Today commences the 40-day Lenten season of fasting and penance preceding Easter. In a tradition dating at least to the 11th century, Christians will be marked by the ashes of last year's Palm Crosses to the exhortation: "Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."


Tradition dictates that one give up a persistent vice. I mentioned last year that President Obama gave up capitalism. But the government could surely use a bit of fasting and abstinence this year - CUTTING BACK ON PORK EVEN ONE DAY A WEEK WOULD BE A GOOD START.

http://nlt.ashbrook.org/2011/03/ash-wednesday.php
I found that last line amusing and thought I would share it with you. 



Obama’s Energy Record

When the Obama Administration issued a single permit for deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico last week, it was essentially taunting a starving oil industry that has been waiting for government action for months. And now that Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Department of Interior, IS APPEALING A COURT ORDER THAT WOULD FORCE HIM TO ACT ON MORE PERMITS, some are questioning whether Obama’s energy policies are pushing the country toward another 1970’s-like energy crisis.

“It’s déjà vu all over again!” said Dan Kish of the Institute for Energy Research. According to Kish, thought THERE ARE SOME DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PRESIDENT OBAMA’S AND PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER’S ENERGY AGENDAS, THEY BOTH LEAD TO THE SAME PLACE: AN ENERGY CRUNCH…..

http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/08/observers-question-end-result-of-obamas-energy-agenda/#ixzz1G47V7yNf

With a science czar that’s main goal is to dedevelop the United States and “investments” in green energy, Obama doesn’t have a very good energy record. And like most things with this man, he seems grossly out of step with the rest of America.



IBD/TIPP Poll: Americans Back Offshore, ANWR Drilling

With the price of gas up 39 cents at the pump in a month and heading higher amid turmoil in much of the Middle East, Americans wonder why the U.S. isn't doing more to exploit its own oil resources.

THEY FAVOR DRILLING IN TERRITORIAL WATERS, 67%-29%, ACCORDING TO A NEW IBD/TIPP POLL. That is up from 61%-30% from last May and 64%-25% when Republicans touted drilling in the 2008 election as oil topped $147 a barrel.



There's also been A SOLID SHIFT TOWARD DRILLING IN ALASKA'S ARC TIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, WITH SUPPORT AT 54%-40%. That's up from 49%-43% last year.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/565150/201103071754/Most-Back-Oil-Drilling-Offshore-In-ANWR.aspx?src=HPLNews

So much for the infatuation with "clean" energy. Americans are a very practical lot. 


What do they fear from Peter King?

I was educated as a social scientist; and as a social scientist, learned that IF I WANTED TO UNDERSTAND A PHENOMENON AND RECOGNIZED A VARIABLE COMMON TO MANY EXAMPLES OF IT, I WOULD BE REMISS IF I DID NOT INVESTIGATE IT. It would be foolhardy to claim that a supposed defense of Islam has not been common to many terrorist events or to claim that there is no such thing as radical Islam. Now, if the political correctness crew wants to rename it something like "radicals-who-claim-they-represent-Islam-but-really-don't-and-certainly-cannot-be-used-to-call-all-Muslims-terrorists," they are welcome to do so; but for the sake of brevity, I will call it radical Islam, and they can consider it short for their mountain of PC qualifiers.

To hear a bevy of usual suspects tell it -- from the White House and Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) to hip hop mogul Russell Simmons -- Congressman Peter King (R-NY) should be outfitted with a white sheet and hood for daring to hold hearings on the threat of radical Muslims in the United States. ELLISON CRITICIZED KING FOR SINGLING OUT A RELIGIOUS MINORITY. Okay, well let's see. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME A CHRISTIAN "TERRORIST" FLEW AN AIRPLANE INTO A SKYSCRAPER, KILLING THOUSANDS? Or how about an Irish one (since Ellison specifically warned us not to single out the Irish)? When was the last time those big, bad Jews strapped on a suicide bomb vest and blew themselves up in a Pakistani shopping mall? If Ellison and his PC compatriots want to offer us some balance by investigating the threat posed by Conservative Christians or Orthodox Jews, I suppose he can find a way to do it. He certainly has a ready-made venue in MSNBC. These were also the same people who claimed after 9/11 that our own actions caused the attacks by angering "Muslims." Today, however, they find the very same linkage offensive -- a linkage they blithely made.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/03/what_do_they_fear_from_peter_k.html

The normal response of the left to this argument is to remind people of Timothy McVeigh. But McVeigh was an agnostic who called science his religion.