Democratic dilemmas

Drill, Maybe, Drill

Energy: Extending existing oil leases as the president has proposed accomplishes nothing if the White House's environmental handcuffs won't let them be used. Lucy wants to hold the football for Charlie Brown again.

When President Obama said during his Saturday radio address that "WE SHOULD INCREASE SAFE AND RESPONSIBLE OIL PRODUCTION HERE AT HOME," THE OPERATIVE WORDS WERE "SAFE AND RESPONSIBLE." We will drill if it's safe for polar bears, caribou and West Texas lizards, and if it doesn't contribute to the "climate change" myth.

SIMILAR WORDS WERE USED TO JUSTIFY THE SEVEN-YEAR MORATORIUM ON OFFSHORE DRILLING off both coasts, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and in the seas off Alaska following last year's Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf, even though no other wells were found to be unsafe.

The Associated Press reported with a straight face that "Obama is directing his administration to ramp up U.S. oil production." In fact, what he proposed is extending existing leases in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska and holding more frequent lease sales in a federal petroleum reserve in Alaska.

USING THOSE LEASES IS QUITE ANOTHER MATTER.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/572387/201105161848/Drill-Maybe-Drill.htm


The Democrats aren’t serious about developing energy resources we have here if they are carbon based.



Saturday Night Live spoofs Obama’s victory laps

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live//video/The-Situation-Room-Cold-Open/1327352


You know Obama’s in trouble when SNL hits him this hard.



Fixing the Schools

NO ONE WILL FIX THE SCHOOLS; EVERYONE WHO CAN DEPENDS ON THEIR STAYING AS THEY ARE. A genuine fix would destroy the public education empire exactly as the industrial revolution destroyed agrarian society. That looming threat cements the status quo in place at any cost. THAT COST, PAID BY STUDENTS, PARENTS, VOTERS AND THE COUNTRY, IS HIGH: DROPOUTS, INCOMPETENCE AND POLITICAL INDOCTRINATION INSTEAD OF EDUCATION AT ABOUT TWICE THE COST PER PUPIL NEEDED IN OTHER PLACES THAT DO BETTER.
Politicians defer to the teachers' unions; its national news when one doesn't. The unions protect the teachers from both competition and hard work and all dig in their heels to prevent change to the system; it therefore plugs on unaltered. Anyone paying attention knows that though many changes are discussed, ONLY ONE CHANGE ACTUALLY OCCURS: INCREASED SPENDING. The mass production of brainwashed incompetence chugs on unimpeded.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/05/government_schools_antiques_pr.html

We keep hearing from the left that the healthcare system had to be reformed. One of the statistics they cited was that we pay more than anyone else and the results are not as good (not really true). But when it comes to education, we know we spend significantly more and get significantly less.



A Totalitarian Democracy

The United States is rapidly becoming a totalitarian democracy.

As described by Israeli historian J. L. Talmon, TOTALITARIAN DEMOCRACY IS A POLITICAL SYSTEM IN WHICH LAWFULLY ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES RULE A NATION STATE WHOSE CITIZENS, ALTHOUGH GRANTED THE RIGHT TO VOTE, HAVE LITTLE OR NO PARTICIPATION IN THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS OF GOVERNMENT.

In a totalitarian democracy, the government is transformed from one based on traditional values and articles of faith into ONE IN WHICH SOCIAL UTILITY TAKES ABSOLUTE PRECEDENCE.

Having no allegiance to those traditional values and articles of faith upon which America was founded; Barack Hussein Obama is in the process of dismantling our Constitution to create his new “Amerika”.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/36515

Liberal fascism is at work here.


Herman Cain: The left’s ultimate nightmare

Herman Cain's handsome glass-walled office overlooks the first fairway of the Eagle's Landing Country Club in this exurb of Atlanta, about 20 miles south of Hartsfield Airport. It is here that the 65-year-old Cain planned to spend what he calls his "cruise control" years -- time spent not exactly in retirement, but at an easier pace than a business career that included stints as CEO of Godfather's Pizza, president of the National Restaurant Association, and chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank.

"Cruise control" it's not. These days, or at least this moment, HERMAN CAIN, LONG A FAVORITE OF TEA PARTY ACTIVISTS, IS ONE OF THE HOTTEST NAMES IN THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY RACE. For most of the party, Cain wasn't even a blip on the radar until the May 5 GOP debate in Greenville, South Carolina -- or, more accurately, the moments after the debate, when Republican pollster Frank Luntz conducted a focus group on Fox News and found NEAR-UNANIMOUS AGREEMENT THAT CAIN WAS THE WINNER. "I've done maybe 35 or 40 of these debates for Fox, and I've never had this kind of reaction," Luntz said. "Something very special happened this evening....."

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/05/herman-cain-sounds-race-debate-win-and-need-simplify-government#ixzz1MXpBecXb


Does this mean the TEA Party is not racist? And does it mean if you vote against Cain or speak badly about him, you are racists? My, my, my, the Democrats are in a pickle on this one.

Democrats and disaster

The State of Liberalism today

….“PUBLIC SECTOR LIBERALISM" represents the logical terminus for a movement that began in an effort to redraw the boundaries of government action in order to bring industrial capitalism to heel and grew in tandem with the expansion of government….

….The conflict today between democrats and republicans increasingly puts PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS AND BENEFICIARIES OF PUBLIC PROGRAMS AGAINST THE MIDDLE-CLASS TAXPAYER AND BUSINESS INTERESTS LARGE AND SMALL…

….How this standoff is resolved between popular conservatism and public sector liberalism is a legitimate subject for debate and speculation. It is obvious, however, that LIBERALISM CAN ONLY PROSPER IF IT CAN CONTINUE TO BUILD COALITIONS THROUGH PUBLIC SPENDING, PUBLIC BORROWING, AND PUBLICLY GUARANTEED CREDIT. These are the resources that underwrite their institutional advantages. Should those resources dry up, as they are now doing as a consequence of the long recession, LIBERALISM WILL UNWIND AS A POLITICAL FORCE AS PUBLIC PROGRAMS ARE CUT, PUBLIC EMPLOYEES ARE LET GO, AND RETIREMENT ARRANGEMENTS WITH PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS ARE RENEGOTIATED. In some public sector states, such outcomes now appear inevitable. Conservatives are in a position to hasten this process along by refusing to approve the spending, borrowing, and federal bailouts that will be required to keep public sector liberalism afloat, though at the price of being blamed for the pain and suffering associated with its collapse. But this is undoubtedly a price worth paying to guide the nation through an adjustment that will otherwise take place later and under circumstances far less to anyone's liking

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/02/21/is-liberalism-dead/1


An excellent article which gives you a lot of insight into the stakes at play in Wisconsin and other states in the Union. Liberals are fighting for their lives. The recession combined with drying up of money in government coffers thereby neutering the left’s ability to buy support is the biggest challenge liberalism has faced in the past 100 years.

Rubicon: A river in Wisconsin

The magnificent turmoil now gripping statehouses in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and soon others marks an epic political moment. The nation faces a fiscal crisis of historic proportions and, remarkably, our muddled, gridlocked, allegedly broken politics have yielded singular clarity.

At the federal level, PRESIDENT OBAMA'S BUDGET MAKES CLEAR THAT DEMOCRATS ARE DETERMINED TO DO NOTHING ABOUT THE DEBT CRISIS, while House Republicans have announced that beyond their proposed cuts in discretionary spending, their April budget will actually propose real entitlement reform. Simultaneously, in Wisconsin and other states, Republican governors are taking on unsustainable, fiscally ruinous pension and health-care obligations, WHILE DEMOCRATS ARE FULL-THROATED IN SUPPORT OF THE PUBLIC-EMPLOYEE UNIONS CRYING, "HELL, NO."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/24/AR2011022406520.html

The lines are drawn.  Democratic lawmakers are fleeing their state rather than accept reality.  In 2008 they told us that elections have consequences.  Now they are in denial of that fact.

New Study: Developing Alaska’s OCS

A new study says DRILLING ON ALASKA’S OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF (OCS) COULD MAKE ALASKA THE EIGHTH LARGEST OIL RESOURCE PROVINCE IN THE WORLD -- ahead of Nigeria, Libya, Russia and Norway.


The report -- by the consulting firm Northern Economics and the University of Alaska-Anchorage’s Institute of Social and Economic Research -- says that developing Alaska’s OCS could produce almost 10 BILLION BARRELS OF OIL AND 15 TRILLION CUBIC FEET OF NATURAL GAS, create around 55,000 NEW JOBS and produce $145 billion in new payroll nationally, generating a total of $193 billion in government revenue through the year 2057.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/new-study-shows-offshore-drilling-alaska


Too bad that liberals don’t want us to drill, produce the energy and the jobs.



Where has all the leadership gone?

…But after telling Tea Party Americans that HE WAS GOING TO "CALL THEIR BLUFF" AND PROPOSE "DIFFICULT CHOICES" to get our runaway deficits under control, what did the president offer in terms of a budget? HE PUT FORTH A PLAN THAT WOULD SEE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BORROW MORE MONEY IN HIS FOUR YEARS THAN UNDER THE PREVIOUS 43 PRESIDENTS COMBINED. And what tough choices did he recommend to rectify the massive unfunded liabilities that are preparing to devour our economy? None.


The president's budget is such a disgrace that EVEN EVAN THOMAS, THE NEWSWEEK WRITER WHO ONCE COMPARED OBAMA TO GOD, CALLED IT A "PROFILE IN COWARDICE." Obama has called for a scalpel to be taken to federal spending when a fleet of jackhammers and buzz saws are in order. Knowing the calamity that awaits us, HE PREFERS TO MORTGAGE OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE IN ORDER TO AVOID THE NECESSARY CUTS THAT MIGHT JEOPARDIZE HIS OWN RE-ELECTION BID. That's not hope. That's not change. That's not leadership.


But all is not lost. Despite the miserable failure in the Oval Office, THERE ARE LEADERS AMONG US. THEY ARE EMERGING IN MIDWESTERN STATES LIKE WISCONSIN, MICHIGAN AND OHIO. Indeed, while most political analysts were focusing on the historic turnover in the U.S. Congress, the most significant impact of the 2010 midterm elections is proving to be what happened in statehouses and governor mansions around the country. There, the people handed the machinery of government over to the Republican Party with one demand: STOP TELLING US WHAT WE WANT TO HEAR SIMPLY TO GET ELECTED, AND START TELLING US WHAT MUST BE DONE TO SAVE OUR REPUBLIC.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/02/leaders_among_us.html