Obama crossed the Rubicon

What’s New Today

Story #1 talks about Obama’s negative advertisement strategy and how it is being accepted by Democrats but not without some misgivings.  #2 talks about some of the drawbacks to negative campaigning.  Obama needs people who are pretty well off votes.  #3 looks at the lack of coverage of the Wisconsin recall.  #4 tells of Newport Beach billing the Obama campaign for a political fundraiser and the expenses they incurred to protect the president.  #5 relates how the NYTimes is looking into Ann Romney’s horseback riding.  It seems its front page news on the old senile gray lady.  #6 is great news for America and in fact all the Americas, but not for the anti-oil people. 

Today’s Thoughts

With the deluge of negative ads coming from the Democrats, Obama is being shown to be simply another politician and one with a terrible record at that.  

Newt Gingrich on Romney’s chances, “given this economy, this level of deficits, this level of debt,” he is confident that Romney could “pull away” this fall.  

Despite the fact that the newspapers tell us that the majority of babies under that age of one are minority babies, that doesn’t mean whites will soon be in the minority.  It seems minority includes race and culture (Hispanic of which ½ are identified as white).  Right now 72% of babies under the age of one are white.  

Chris Hayes, of MSNBC's says he's uncomfortable ascribing valorous terms to fallen military because it's "rhetorically proximate to justifications for more war."  I’m uncomfortable calling Mr. Hayes a journalist because it gives justifications for his stupid remarks. 

1. Democrats approve of Obama strategy recognizing the risks

 

After nearly two weeks of heated debate over whether President Obama should attack Mitt Romney’s tenure at a private-equity firm, Democratic leaders across the country say they are largely united behind the strategy, even as some concede an uncertain outcome and new polls show Obama has lost ground nationally.

The Democratic leaders, in numerous interviews over the last week, said they are hearing little or no resistance among the party faithful in their states to a strategy that Republicans have characterized as anti-capitalist. And Obama has no plans to back off; his campaign will roll out more stories in the coming weeks that advisers said will again show Bain Capital as a corporate menace that protects profits at the expense of people and jobs….

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democratic-leaders-back-obamas-bain-strategy-vs-romney-acknowledge-risks/2012/05/27/gJQAJBH1uU_story.html

Obama has to go that way because it is the only thing he’s got.  The problem is that even if it worked well out of the gate (which it hasn’t) six months of negative Obama will hurt him much more than Romney. 

2. Obama needs affluent voters to win

The ham-handed Barack Obama campaign attack ads on Mitt Romney's former firm Bain Capital have drawn a lot of ire from other Democrats.

And not just because they were sloppily fact-checked (the ads hit Romney for layoffs long after he left Bain) and because a leading Obama money bundler is a Bain executive himself.

Chiming in with various degrees of disapproval were Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker ("nauseating"), former Rep. Harold Ford, Obama car czar Steven Rattner, Sen. Mark Warner and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.

There are other signs of unease among Democratic elites. Obama contributions from Silicon Valley and Wall Street have failed to match 2008 numbers.

But what about the voters? Will the Bain ads help Obama? Or could there be some Bain backlash at the polls?

Start with the fact that class warfare themes have less appeal than some people think. The last Democrat elected president on a class warfare platform was Harry Truman in 1948.

One reason is that affluent voters are turned off by demonization of the successful. Back in Truman's day, affluent voters outside the South voted Republican by huge percentages. There just weren't enough of them to elect Thomas Dewey.

Today, there are a lot more affluent people. The 2008 exit poll told us that 26 percent of voters had household incomes over $100,000. Half of them voted for Obama. He needs those votes again…

http://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2012/05/28/obamas_bain_attacks_could_backfire

This is what happens when you don’t have a record you can run on.  You have to demonize the other guy and in doing so you risk a lot. 

3. What ever happened to the Wisconsin Recall?

The Wisconsin recall is a farce​—​a childish, union-sponsored tantrum that will cost the state’s taxpayers an estimated $18 million. Perhaps the greatest irony is that Democrats rarely discuss its ostensible cause: collective bargaining. Tom Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee who is seeking to replace Walker, did not use the phrase in the speech he gave celebrating his victory in the Democratic primary earlier this month. Graeme Zielinski, spokesman for the Wisconsin Democratic party, told Mother Jones: “Collective bargaining is not moving people.” A recent poll of Wisconsin Democrats found that just 12 percent of those surveyed said “restoring collective bargaining rights of public employees” was the most important reason to remove Walker, well behind three other choices.

There’s a reason the governor’s reforms have gone from being the center of the anti-Walker movement to a talking point to be avoided. They’ve worked. Walker took office with a projected deficit of $3.6 billion, and in two years he’s erased it. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue projected last month that the state will have a budget surplus of $154 million by the summer of 2013…

…One sign that Wisconsin governor Scott Walker is likely to win the election on June 5 is the sudden disappearance of national media attention to the race. The networks and newspapers that gave wall-to-wall coverage to protests in the streets of Madison in the spring of 2011 and excitedly reported on the drive to collect signatures to force a recall have gone relatively quiet as a succession of polls show Walker leading by 5 points or more. State Democrats are complaining that national Democrats aren’t devoting the time and resources necessary to defeat Walker; national Democrats are whispering to reporters that they’d warned their Wisconsin counterparts against a costly recall effort. David Axelrod has made comments in recent days downplaying the significance of the recall beyond Wisconsin. Obama himself, who once promised to walk the picket lines with his union backers when their interests were threatened, seems to want no part of the recall​—​or at least not a high-profile part…

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/wisconsin_645900.html

Things are not looking good for the Democrats in Wisconsin or nationally.  I think rather than worrying about winning in November, the Democrats will be moving to damage control rather quickly. It’s not a question of will they lose.  It’s a question of how bad it will be. 

4. Newport Beach Bills Obama

The overwhelmingly Republican, exceedingly wealthy Southern California beach town of Newport Beach has slapped the Obama campaign with the bill for its February fundraising visit to the Corona del Mar neighborhood. The affluent community's City Manager Dave Kiff is behind the unprecedented billing, arguing that since the visit was campaign-related, not official presidential business, the Obama campaign should pay for the increased security, as would any private event. The bill's due date of June 9 is fast approaching, but there has been as yet no response from the Obama campaign offices in Chicago.

http://now.msn.com/money/0527-newport-beach-bills-Obama.aspx

Seems fair to me?  What do you think?

5. NYT—the gray lady is going senile

Leave it to the New York Times to greet its vast audience of Sunday edition readers with a front-page hit job on Ann Romney. Everyone knows that Mitt Romney’s wife, along with his flock of sons, is one of his greatest strengths. Ann Romney is beautiful, smart, a great campaigner, and an all-around asset to Mitt Romney’s campaign for the presidency.

So what does the old “paper of record,” as it used to be called before everyone realized it is a left-liberal rag that regularly fails to separate outright propaganda from its news stories, do to tarnish Ann Romney?
It does the only thing possible. Run a story to prove what we already know: The Romneys are rich, they are part of the hated 1% (to use OWS lingo), and Mrs. Romney is someone who engages in a horse sport called “dressage.” Yes, it is so rare that you undoubtedly never heard of it before.

The Times informs us in the second paragraph that the sport attracts “wealthy women” in particular; that the horses who are in it cost “seven figures”; that Ann Romney goes on horse buying trips to Europe; and that Ann and Mitt floated a loan of $250,000 to $500,000 to one Jan Ebeling, Ann’s tutor in the sport and a horse scout….

http://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2012/05/27/the-new-york-times-runs-a-hit-job-on-ann-romney-why-arent-i-surprised/

So Obama’s connection with Bill Ayers isn’t an issue we should look at, but Ann Romney’s “dressage” is something that should be on the front page of the NYT. 

6. Here’s Hope and Change we can believe in even if Obama won’t

From Canada to Colombia to Brazil, oil and gas production in the Western Hemisphere is booming, with the United States emerging less dependent on supplies from an unstable Middle East. Central to the new energy equation is the United States itself, which has ramped up production and is now churning out 1.7 million more barrels of oil and liquid fuel per day than in 2005.

“There are new players and drivers in the world,” said Ruben Etcheverry, chief executive of Gas and Oil of Neuquen, a state-owned energy firm that is positioning itself to develop oil and gas fields here in Patagonia. “There is a new geopolitical shift, and those countries that never provided oil and gas can now do so. For the United States, there is a glimmer of the possibility of self-sufficiency.”

Oil produced in Persian Gulf countries — notably Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq — will remain vital to the world’s energy picture. But what was once a seemingly unalterable truth — that American oil production would steadily fall while the United States remained heavily reliant on Middle Eastern supplies — is being turned on its head…

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/center-of-gravity-in-oil-world-shifts-to-americas/2012/05/25/gJQAjeuVqU_story.html?tid=pm_pop

Of course this takes away two of the main reasons for the government to give money to “green” energy.  First, it removes the peak oil argument.  Second it removes the self-sufficiency argument.  All that is left is “global warming” and that’

A creaky Obama Machine

What’s new Today 

Story #1 talks about Obama’s biggest problem and it is the growth rate of the economy which is approximately ½ of what it traditionally should be.  #2 tells us why Obama’s favorability has dropped with young voters.  #3 posits that the Liberals are looking back to a time gone by both with low skill manufacturing jobs and college educations.  #4 is another look at the Pew Polls talking about the differences between Conservatives and Liberals.  #5 looks at who was the brains behind the attack on Ann Romney.  #6 is a mildly effective campaign ad about what would you do if you “wanted America to fail.”  #7 looks at Mitt Romney and finds him to be very smooth.  #8 looks at our News Organizations and asks the question, “are they out of their minds?” 

Today’s thoughts

Did you know that Obama only paid 23% tax of his 2010 total income?  His income was $1,795,614 so in 2010 he obviously didn’t pay is fair share!

With the warmer than average winter this year in the USA, people were talking about global warming.  With a record snowfall forecasted for the Northeast does that mean its global cooling now?

In the 2008 election there was evidence of ballot box stuffing by Democrats in Pennsylvania and Ohio.  John McCain went against advice and decided not to make an issue of it for the good of the country.

Who is the most televised first lady in history?  With 44 cameo appearance, Michelle Obama is the clear winner. 

1.  Obama’s 2.5% problem

Wall Street headlines are full of fears of a springtime stall for the already subpar economic recovery. And if that weren’t bad enough for Obama’s reelection chances, a spate of new polls show Mitt Romney’s economic-approval ratings are far outdistancing the president’s.

Even while the headline surveys basically show an Obama-Romney tossup, it will be very difficult for Obama to pull out a victory this fall. Traditionally, incumbents who poll below 50 percent are in trouble. And with Obama consistently in the mid-40s, he has a tough uphill climb ahead.

Of course, a subpar recovery has kept the president’s reelection hopes in doubt for some time. Former Bush economist Ed Lazear calls it the worst recovery in history. Okay. That may be a partisan shot. But actually, the data points bear this out.

At roughly 2.5 percent growth, the Obama recovery is way below the 4.5 percent average since World War II. And within Obama’s 2.5 percent economy, polling data show high voter anxiety over gas prices, home values, and the ability to pay mortgages. Voters even worry that they won’t be able to afford to send their kids to college.

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/296648/obama-s-25-percent-stall-larry-kudlow

The people will throw Obama and the Democrats out of power just as they did the Republicans 5 or so years ago.  And the Republicans will have 4 years to fix the problem.  Fortunately the will have energy to help them along.  The Democrats won’t do it because it violates the precepts of their base.  It is akin to the Nazi’s refusing to work on an Atomic Bomb because it was “Jewish” science.

2.  One in Two Graduates unemployed or underemployed

The college class of 2012 is in for a rude welcome to the world of work.

A weak labor market already has left half of young college graduates either jobless or underemployed in positions that don't fully use their skills and knowledge.

Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans.

An analysis of government data conducted for The Associated Press lays bare the highly uneven prospects for holders of bachelor's degrees.

Opportunities for college graduates vary widely.

While there's strong demand in science, education and health fields, arts and humanities flounder. Median wages for those with bachelor's degrees are down from 2000, hit by technological changes that are eliminating midlevel jobs such as bank tellers. Most future job openings are projected to be in lower-skilled positions such as home health aides, who can provide personalized attention as the U.S. population ages.

Taking underemployment into consideration, the job prospects for bachelor's degree holders fell last year to the lowest level in more than a decade.

"I don't even know what I'm looking for," says Michael Bledsoe, who described months of fruitless job searches as he served customers at a Seattle coffeehouse. The 23-year-old graduated in 2010 with a creative writing degree.

Initially hopeful that his college education would create opportunities, Bledsoe languished for three months before finally taking a job as a barista, a position he has held for the last two years. In the beginning he sent three or four resumes day. But, Bledsoe said, employers questioned his lack of experience or the practical worth of his major. Now he sends a resume once every two weeks or so…

http://news.yahoo.com/1-2-graduates-jobless-underemployed-140300522.html

I’m pretty sure Michael Bledsoe’s chief concern is that millionaires pay their fair share and that he has health insurance.

3.  Liberal Nostalgia and the Real World

… The liberal nostalgiacs would like to see an economy that gives low-skill high school graduates similar opportunities. That’s what Barack Obama seems to be envisioning when he talks about hundreds of thousands of “green jobs.”

But those “green jobs” have not come into existence despite massive government subsidies and crony capitalism. It’s become apparent that the old Detroit model was unsustainable and cannot be revived even by the most gifted community organizer and adjunct law professor.

For one thing, in a rapidly changing and technologically advanced economy, the lifetime job seems to be a thing of the past. Particularly “lifetime” jobs where you work only 30 years and then get supported for the next 30 or so years of your life.

Today’s young people can’t expect to join large organizations and in effect ride escalators for the rest of their careers. The new companies emerging as winners in high tech — think Apple or Google — just don’t employ that many people, at least in the United States.

Similarly, today’s manufacturing firms produce about as large a share of the gross national product as they used to with a much smaller percentage of the labor force.

Moreover, there’s evidence that recent growth in some of the professions — the law, higher education — has been a bubble, and is about to burst,,.

http://rightwingnews.com/column-2/liberal-nostalgiacs-dont-understand-jobs-of-the-future/

This is a good follow on to the previous story.  The problems are systemic and rather than adjust to them, we are getting tired slogans about everyone should have a college education.  This represents vision in some people’s minds.  It isn’t.

4.  Liberals vs Conservative

…Pew’s new study echoes the results of many other reports and studies that show GOP supporters are better educated, more empathetic and more open to criticism than Democrats.

A March 12 Pew study showed that Democrats are far more likely that conservatives to disconnect from people who disagree with them.

“In all, 28% of liberals have blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone on SNS [social networking sites] because of one of these reasons, compared with 16% of conservatives and 14% of moderates,” said the report, titled “Social networking sites and politics.”

The report also noted that 11 percent of liberals, but only 4 percent of conservatives, deleted friends from their social networks after disagreeing with their politics.

A March Washington Post poll showed that Democrats were more willing to change their views about a subject to make their team look good. For example, in 2006, 73 percent of Democrats said the GOP-controlled White House could lower gas prices, but that number fell by more than half to 33 percent in 2012 once a Democrat was in the White House.

In contrast, the opinions of GOP supporters were more consistent. Their collective opinion shifted by only a third, according to the data. In 2006, 47 percent in believed the White House could influence gas prices. By 2012, that number had risen to 65 percent up 17 points compared to the Democrats’ 40 point shift.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/22/science-say-gop-voters-better-informed-open-minded/#ixzz1srhu92pZ

Not really surprising unless you are a liberal.  But if you are, I’m sure you won’t read my blog again. 

5.  Was Michelle Obama behind the Ann Romney attack?

Political sources revealed to The ENQUIRER that MICHELLE OBAMA brain-stormed the scheme to sic a pit bull strategist on the GOP contender’s wife ANN ROMNEY and it backfired!

Talking head Hilary Rosen set off a firestorm when she mocked Mitt Romney for relying on his wife for advice on the economy, sniping that Ann – who raised five sons, has battled breast cancer and suffers from mul­tiple sclerosis – “never worked a day in her life!”

Rosen was forced to apologize, say­ing her words were “poorly chosen.” Even President Obama got into the act, saying there’s “no tougher job than being a mom.”

A publicly sympathetic Michelle, 48, tapped out a message on Twitter, writing: “Every mother works hard, and every woman deserves to be re­spected.” But behind the scenes, her fingerprints were all over the scandal, said an inside source.

“Michelle had her claws out to get Ann, but it quickly backfired and Barack was livid when he heard she had secretly directed the attack,” said the source.

“What Michelle didn’t remember was that when Barack was running for president, he told ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ that it was unfair to attack Michelle, saying his wife was off limits. Here they were, however, doing the same thing to Romney’s wife four years later.

“But even though Michelle was the instigator, the political grenade blew up in the president’s face.”..

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/revealed-michelle-obama-masterminded-ann-romney-mom-smear

It looks like Michelle may not be proud of her country in this election.

6.  What would you do if you wanted America to fail?

A predictable, but very effective political ad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-4gnNz0vc&feature=player_embedded

7.   How smooth is Mitt Romney?

Mitt Romney slowly but surely is showing how he will turn Barack Obama into a one-term president: One block at a time. At a Republican retreat in Arizona, Mitt Romney made the case against President Obama. Nothing personal, just business.

Indeed, Mitt Romney went out of his way to compliment the guy: “I think he’s a nice person. I just don’t think we can afford him any longer.”

That is smooth.

You don’t have to be in full attack mode 24/7.

Romney is not playing to the base. Obama is. The candidate who plays to the base the most loses. You have to reach out. Not just for votes but to disarm the other side and make them more at ease with staying at home on November 6….

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/54478

As Obama and the Democrats turn up the negativity, Romney gives America an excuse to get rid of Obama without feeling racist.  This is smooth and effective.   Nothing personal here, just taking care of business. 

8.  Have Our News Organizations Gone Crazy?

I wrote here about MSNBC’s campaign to tie the Koch brothers to George Zimmerman’s shooting of Trayvon Martin. That effort was, it is fair to say, insane, but it apparently inspired one or more liberals to take MSNBC’s theories a step farther. Someone wrote–I think it was on Facebook–that Koch Industries had paid for Zimmerman’s legal defense and/or put up his bail money. Other liberals happily repeated the claim, to the point where Snopes deemed it a rumor worth addressing.

The claim is not only false, but entirely baseless and, in fact, stupid. There is no connection whatsoever between Koch Industries or the Koch brothers and George Zimmerman. None. Further, while the Koch brothers have championed a number of libertarian causes, gun rights have not been among them. In the one instance where Koch Industries is known to have lobbied on a firearms issue, it was against a proposed liberalization of firearms laws in Florida. And the brothers have no history of participating in the defense of criminal defendants. …

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/04/have-our-news-organizations-gone-crazy.php

It is a shame that many on the left want to attribute anything they find suspicious to either Fox News or the Koch Brothers. This not only makes them sound foolish, it makes them sound paranoid.

A good week for the Republicans

What’s new Today 

Story #1 relates how weak the arrest warrant for Geo. Zimmerman is.  #2 is a prediction that Romney will win in November.  #3 is all about Ann Romney and why the left fears her.  #4 is a vindication of fracking. 

Today’s thoughts

Obama wants a Buffet Rule for taxes.  How about an Obama Rule for taxes?  Every member of the Congress and the top members of the President’s cabinet including the President and Vice President will pay a minimum of 30% of their income in income taxes.

We now have two recent polls where Obama is stuck at 44% and trailing Mitt Romney. 

There’s an 1800 word article on John Edward’s trial that fails to mention he is a democrat, but mentions the word Republicans five times.  That America is what you call an unbiased MSM.

1.   Zimmerman arrest document lacking

I spent twenty years working Colorado law enforcement, followed by nearly two years as an investigator for the Colorado State Public Defender's Office. Ten of my twenty-two years in the criminal justice arena were in the area of criminal investigations, complex and simple.

I just read the arrest affidavit in the Florida v. George Zimmerman case. I'm pretty certain that I would have been laughed out of any judge's chambers in Colorado had I brought in a piece of evidentiary matter so poorly written. The Zimmerman affidavit is so deficient in properly sourced factual information and full of unsubstantiated, unsourced conclusions that I am appalled that a state's attorney would even give it a second look. I don't know what's going on in the Florida Courts. But where I worked as a cop, all summaries of statements from eye- and earwitnesses, whether inculpatory or exculpatory, had to be both sourced and included in a properly assembled arrest affidavit.

Every piece of information in the affidavit must be provable to a jury. This case is terribly lacking, both in supporting evidence and in veracity. To wit, from the document (with pertinent material emphasis highlighted by me):…

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/04/problems_with_the_zimmerman_affidavit.html#ixzz1s10lPBe9

I’m pretty sure this isn’t the reaction that the special prosecutor was looking for. 

2.  Its Romney’s to Lose

Call me crazy, but I think Mitt Romney has more than an even chance of winning this election against Barack Obama. If he plays things right -- and I'm pretty sure he will -- I think there's a very good possibility a surge of voter sentiment will put him into office.

Start with an analogy. In 1989, New York voters elected Manhattan Borough President David Dinkins as the city's first African-American mayor. Church bells rang, the newspapers sang hosannas, and everyone congratulated themselves on the wonderful act of tolerance that had put the journeyman Democratic politician into office.

Once things settled down, however, Dinkins’ administration proved to be less than inspirational. Like all Democrats everywhere, he had no sense of the value of money. He went on spending as if there were no tomorrow. As it happened, the country was falling into a recession and revenue was drying up. So he and Democratic Governor Mario Cuomo both responded by raisingtaxes, with the result that one of five jobs lost in the country were in the Empire State. By the end of his term, Dinkins was starting to tinker with one of New York's most sacred covenants --the informal agreement that keeps property taxes very low for homeowners. With the city overwhelmed with crime, even successful middle class people were headed for the exits….

….In short, after four years New Yorkers were wondering if electing Dinkins had been such a great idea. And so in a city where only 10 percent of the electorate is registered Republican, the people of New York closed their eyes and pulled the lever for a former Republican prosecutor named Rudy Giuliani as mayor. The rest is history. To this day there are die-hard liberals in New York who are reluctant to admit they voted for Giuliani in 1993, but that's why we have a secret ballot. Right up until the election Giuliani trailed in the polls and there was never any broad expectation that he might win. But he did.

And that, I suspect, it pretty much the way things could happen in this election. I wouldn't expect to see Romney piling up any lead in the polls. It's almost better that way. If people start expecting Romney to win they may have second thoughts or start feeling guilty about abandoning Obama…

http://spectator.org/archives/2012/04/13/its-romneys-to-lose

I think it will be a replay of 1980.  Reagan and Carter were close all the way til the weekend before the election when Reagan started to surge as the undecided voters stopped pretending they might vote for Carter.  Expect the same in this election. 

3.  Why the Left Fears Ann Romney

While Rosen made a “fulsome” (i.e., offensive, disgusting, and insincere) apology, others doubled down on her behalf. NOW President Terry O’Neill carefully explained that, if you don’t get paid for your work, it doesn’t count — which is precisely what my liberal Facebook friends have been saying, in an eerie echo of 1960s’ male chauvinist pigs.

The doubling down continued when Judith Warner, who writes for TIME Magazine, agrees that Ann Romney is “out of touch” with most women. You see, Ann Romney comes from an intact family where the man is the primary breadwinner. What could be more appallingly regressive than that...

… I am the counterweight to the state. Therefore, I am dangerous. I am subversive simply by existing. My love for my children is a dominant force that works its way into their psyches and that trumps the state-run schools and the state complicit media world. Some mothers, of course, are entirely in sync with schools and media. They happily reinforce the statist message. But those of us who don’t are a powerful anti-statist force and we must be challenged.

The Left’s problem with Ann Romney transcends her husband’s wealth, her (and his) Republican identification, and her decision to work for her children, rather than for a paying employer. The Left’s problem with Ann Romney is that she represents the triumph of the individual. No wonder they hate her so much.

http://www.bookwormroom.com/2012/04/13/the-real-threat-that-the-ann-romneys-of-the-world-represent/

An excellent description of the bankruptcy that the left is trying to sell to the the rest of us.  Rather than being open minded and accepting, the left’s version of all of the above socially is like Obama’s regarding energy or the slogan in the book Animal House.  “All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others.” 

4.  The Vindication of Fracking

The environmental left views the incredible rebirth of the American fossil fuel industry, wrought by unconventional methods (fracking and horizontal drilling), with alarm and disgust. The idea that the United States could easily fulfill all of its energy needs by utilizing its great domestic reserves of fossil fuels arouses their collective anger, and they have been battling this technology via every means at their disposal…

…But the forces of Enlightenment are fighting back against the environmentalist nature-worshipers, and the former are beginning to win some major victories.

Start with the happy news that the EPA has been forced to back off on its aggressive war on fracking. It has withdrawn its lawsuit against Range Resources Corporation wherein, it had alleged that the company was polluting water wells near Fort Worth, Texas.

Moreover, the EPA will now retest water in Wyoming about which it had earlier raised questions.

Add to this the fact that the Agency has tested well water in Pennsylvania, once found to be polluted, and now (like the state's own similar agency) declares the water to be safe, and you begin to sense that the EPA is being forced to retreat from its reflexive hysterical opposition to the new technology.

It will be interesting to see if the EPA's overall report on the safety of fracking, due out later this year, will reflect this new-found moderation.

One good sign is that the extremist environmentalist groups are beginning to come down hard on the EPA, long considered an agency the belonged to them….

…Two recent reports confirm the efficacy and safety of fracking. The first is a report in ScienceNOW that a team of 16 scientists at the University of Texas, headed by Charles Groat, conducted a comprehensive review of the scientific and regulatory in Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The researchers -- not funded by any energy company, by the way -- concluded that there is no evidence that fracking chemicals are contaminating water supplies or anything else, nor did they see any need for additional regulations. They called instead for tighter monitoring of existing regulations -- including strengthening well casing and putting concrete around it, to make sure gas doesn't escape.

Then there is the recent study in Environmental Science and Technology Journal. The report shows that fracking has had a dramatic impact on the level of atmospheric CO₂ (a "greenhouse gas" often tied to global warming) production: it turns out to lower it!

Why? Well, fracking (and horizontal drilling) have led to a massive increase in the production of domestic natural gas, driving the prices  dramatically down.  In fact, from 2008 to the present, the price of natural gas has plummeted over 80% from $12 to $2.30 per million Btus (MMBtu). This has led to natural gas being used to generate power formerly generated by coal fired plants. And burning natural gas emits less CO₂ than does burning coal.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/04/fracking_vindicated.html#ixzz1s0yDH84x

Fracking is safe, productive and will help renew the country.