The "conservative" LA Times(?!)

Has there been some sort of seismic shift in the polarity of the planet?  Because there are grumblings about Il Duce emanating from a most unexpected place - the Los Angeles Times!

The Times' "bashing" of the Dear Leader has reached such magnitude that noted Lefttard Eric Boehlert felt compelled to go on a major whinefest to complain about the "conservative" Times editorialists and columnists and their mistreatment of his messiah.

But now, in the aftermath of Duce's first ever Oval Office address to the nation (First ever?  In June?  Of his second year in office?), yet another Times editorialist has teed off on Obama.

But watching the president and hearing him was a little creepy; that early portion of the address was robotic, lacked real energy, enthusiasm. And worst of all specifics. He was virtually detail-less.

After almost two months of waiting through continuously contradictory reports, an anxious American public wanted to know, HOW are you going to accomplish all this?

Even Obama's cheerleaders over at MSNBC were complaining. "Where was the How in this speech?" demanded Keith Olbermann. Seriously.

Yeah. Seriously.

Every day we hear about offers of assistance to help trap the oil, or to help clean up the mess, being given the "unvite" (for those of you over 30, that roughly signifies an awkward non-invitation given under duress).  Most vexing of all is the Administration's refusal to consider a waiver of the Jones Act, a steaming pile of 1920's era protectionist BS beloved by Big Labor because it prohibits ships and/or crews from foreign countries from engaging in business in US Coastal waters.  As a result of the Jones Act, Dutch vessels with expertise in dealing with huge oil spills sit on the sidelines, unable to assist in any way in the cleanup of what is easily the greatest eco-disaster of the 21st century.

I'm starting to think that my tin-foil hat conspiracy theory actually holds water!

So The Times is now a right-wing rag, and MSNBC is criticizing Il Duce as well.  What's next?  Pigs flying? 

A side note on the Times article.  Check out the photo of Florida Governor Charlie Christ piping (for those of you over 30, that means "staring intently at") the ass of a young hottie on the beach at the top of the article.  Dirty old man!

Upon further review...

The following exchange of comments took place Monday in regard to my post about Gordon Brown's complicity in the release of the Lockerbee mastermind.

And just why are you letting BP off the hook? I might just cancel my sunny yellow credit card, and take my oil business elsewhere.

Toes

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Letting BP off the hook? By no means! I just hadn't considered them anywhere near as culpable as Old Gordo.

What BP did was corrupt and immoral. But Brown is entrusted with the safety and well-being of the nation. Therefore, for him to do something so flagrantly immoral is unconscionable.

BP SHOULD be called to task for their complicity. Feel free to shelve the sunny yellow card.

Vulture

The more I've thought about it, the more I'm of the opinion that I WAS remiss in not addressing the immorality of British Petroleum for their part in this scandal.

The problem with multi-national corporations is that they put more stock in the 'multi' than in the 'national'. BP couldn't give two shits about Great Britain and its future. They, like all of the other looters and plunderers who seem to have taken over in the corporate world, are too busy looking forward to the great One-World Socialist Utopia they have in store for us to be bothered with little niggling issues like the security of their homeland.

We are actually living Atlas Shrugged. It's mind-blowing.

Scotland was just the fall guy

Well, well, well. It seems I may have been a tad rash in my scathing tirade against Scotland. It seems that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was using his homeland as cover for his own pernicious and craven acts (hat tip to Vox Popoli).

The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal.

Gordon Brown’s government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards.

The letters were sent two years ago by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, who has been widely criticised for taking the formal decision to permit Megrahi’s release.

The correspondence makes it plain that the key decision to include Megrahi in a deal with Libya to allow prisoners to return home was, in fact, taken in London for British national interests.

Gordon Brown, you are a snake! For a Scot to let his homeland take the heat for an act of sniveling cowardice performed on behalf of an oil industry that you and your fellow Leftists scapegoat at every turn is beyond belief.

Great Britain should be ashamed to be represented by such a vile and cowardly man as Gordon Brown.

Another remake of an ageless prediction

Stop me if you've heard this before - the world is running out of oil. No, really! This time for sure! At least that's what the International Energy Agency is saying.

The world is heading for a catastrophic energy crunch that could cripple a global economic recovery because most of the major oil fields in the world have passed their peak production, a leading energy economist has warned.
[...]
Dr Birol said that the public and many governments appeared to be oblivious to the fact that the oil on which modern civilisation depends is running out far faster than previously predicted and that global production is likely to peak in about 10 years – at least a decade earlier than most governments had estimated.

Ah, yes! Nothing like a remake of a classic.

But Vulture! Aren't you concerned? I might be, except that, if one examines the history of these gloom and doom "We're out of oil! The sky is falling!" predictions, one tends to be a little more sanguine about them.

You see, I am a child of the 1970's. As such, I've seen the litany of doomsday predictions throughout the 70's, 80's, and 90's...and I've seen each one fall flat on its face. What's worse is that each "prediction" is nothing more than a recycling of the last one.

When projected crises failed to occur, doomsayers moved their predictions forward by a few years and published again in more visible and prestigious journals:

● In 1989, one expert forecast that world oil production would peak that very year and oil prices would reach $50 a barrel by 1994.

● In 1995, a respected geologist predicted in World Oil that petroleum production would peak in 1996, and after 1999 major increases in crude oil prices would have dire consequences. He warned that “[m]any of the world’s developed societies may look more like today’s Russia than the U.S.”

● A 1998 Scientific American article entitled “The End of Cheap Oil” predicted that world oil production would peak in 2002 and warned that “what our society does face, and soon, is the end of the abundant and cheap oil on which all industrial nations depend.”

Similar admonitions were published in the two most influential scientific journals in the world, Nature and Science. A 1998 article in Science was titled “The Next Oil Crisis Looms Large — and Perhaps Close.” A 1999 Nature article was subtitled “[A] permanent decline in global oil production rate is virtually certain to begin within 20 years.”

These predictions of doom and woe actually began WAAAAAY before the 70's.

O]il is a finite resource, and fear of running out has always haunted the petroleum industry. In the 1880's, John Archbold, who would succeed John D. Rockefeller as head of the Standard Oil Trust, began to sell his shares in the company because engineers told him that America's days as an oil producer were numbered.

After World War I, the American government's top oil expert predicted a coming "gasoline famine." One solution was to cobble together the three easternmost provinces of the defunct Ottoman Empire into a new country, called Iraq, believed to be rich in oil resources and safely under British control.

After World War II, fears of shortages spiked again, and the industry invented offshore drilling. (Today, 30 percent of America's crude oil comes from the Gulf of Mexico.) Reserves in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, discovered just before World War II, were rapidly developed.

So why are these predictions recycled again and again? Because the dishonest Big Media (the BM for short) won't call these asshats on their prior erroneous predictions. They simply parrot the doom and gloom because bad news sells. Had they any integrity whatsoever, they'd at least MENTION the history of laughable (and patently wrong) predictions along side the announcement of the newest one. But that runs the risk of individuals breaking from the collective and doesn't contribute to the coming One-World Socialist Utopia! We can't have that!

Since most people know only what they are told and have no working historical knowledge, they fall for this shinola time and time again.

Orwell was right - "He who controls the past, controls the future."

Vulture Droppings - catching up

Vulture droppings is a semi-regular feature of this blog. It's a kind of "Random Thoughts" post in which I try to quickly summarize a particularly large event or series of events. Think of it being sort of like what a vulture leaves behind after devouring a horse. You don't get the whole horse, just highly processed leftovers.

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The past month it's been pretty hard to keep up with all of the stuff happening out there in the world. It's coming at us fast and furious, and it's not showing any signs of let up. As such, I wanted to 'drop' a bunch of items here so that I could clear some of the backlog.

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I've made the big time. I've been added to the Voxologisti - the blogger links on Vox Popoli, Vox Day's blog. Okay, so there are about 100 other blogs featured there. But I'm one of them!

BTW, I can't recommend Vox Popoli strongly enough. He's always got a strong take on the issues, and it's always a great read.

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Mark has a beef with Obama's early proclamations.

Subject: Gas

Heard on the news last night that one of Obama's 1st acts as pres. will be to overturn Bush's efforts to explore and drill for more oil & natural gas. Hello $5.00 gasoline and higher utility rates!! Boy I love Lefties!!!

I hadn't heard about this. I did a quick web-blast, and found stories saying that BHO was "considering" overturning this edict of the Rex Americana. To me, it seems that BHO is following in the footsteps of the Clintons by sending up trial balloons to see exactly what he can get away with. If there isn't a general public outcry about a particular "balloon", he'll know that it's something he can get away with.

Another trial balloon floating about is in regards to the restoration of the Fairness Doctrine. I want to emphasize in the strongest possible language that a reimplementation of the Fairness Doctrine, coupled with the extraordinary powers now vested in the Office of the President thanks to King George the Dim, could very likely spell the end of freedom of speech in this country. Don't think that the Lefties will limit its implementation to just TV and radio -- the Internet will be included, too -- maybe not right away, but eventually.

For a guy who's supposed to be a visionary and a uniter, he's sure quick to embrace (a) rule by edict, (b) sneaky Clintonista tactics, and (c) suppression of Constitutionally-guaranteed liberties.

Whether it's King George the Dim doing it, or BHO doing it, rule by Executive Order runs contrary to everything our founding fathers believed in. The fact that he's already deciding which edicts he will issue two months before he takes office leads me to believe that he'll follow in the footsteps of his predecessor and use the Constitution as toilet paper.

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dw also chimes in, on a different theme. This was obviously written before I had a chance to review the game.

Subject: WTF VULTURE

A Monday night like no other. Yes, I am talking the 9ers. OMG, were they something else. Down to the last 4 seconds. Oh, I forgot, you Eastern sleepy heads were fast asleep while this loyal fan in AZ watched the whole firggin game. A disappointment - NO!! I love Singletary - He walks the sidelines with AUTHORITY! I like the Cards since moving here but THE 9ERS LIVE ON and on my walls. So sad to see the Vulture swooped right over that one. Hey Vulture, take time to smell the desert. Great game and actually some hope for my beloved 9ers!!!

dw, I couldn't agree with you more. Yes, the result of the game was disappointing. But you can see a palpable difference in the attitudes of the players. Their attitudes are starting to mirror the attitude of the Head Coach. Mike Singletary is a man among men, a giant, a legend of the game of professional football. I love what he is doing with the team. I think that, ultimately, after he's done making all of his rookie coaching mistakes, he'll end up being one of the top-notch Head Coaches in the league. Mark. My. Words.

The Niners, like the South, shall rise again!

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Have you noticed the slew of articles pointing out that there is zero accountability over the financial bail-out money being distributed hither-and-yon to Friends of Henry Paulson, Inc? Have you noticed that, rather than purchasing the worthless mortgages from financial institutions, as Congress had promised they would do when they passed that steaming pile of legislation, they are, instead, purchasing stock in the financial institutions themselves? I wish I was making that up. I really do.

Fascist economics: Fascists believe in joint ownership of business/industry between private interests and the government, or private ownership with government oversight of said businesses.

Welcome to the Fourth Reich.

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Last item: the people who are constantly telling us how bigoted and intolerant we are seem to think its okay to threaten and harass those whose viewpoints don't match their own.

Letters containing a suspicious white powder were sent Thursday to Mormon temples in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City that were the sites of protests against the church's support of California's gay marriage ban.

The temple in the Westwood area of Los Angeles was evacuated before a hazardous materials crew determined the envelope's contents were not toxic, said FBI spokesman Jason Pack.

The temple in downtown Salt Lake City, where the church is based, received a similar envelope containing a white powder that spilled onto a clerk's hand.

Let's just imagine, if you will, that the roles were reversed. Let's imagine that Prop 8 had WON, and the Mormons were picketing and heckling the gays. Then a package of white powder is received by a gay organization, requiring evacuation of the building and perhaps immediate medical attention for the poor clerk who opened the package. Under those conditions, would the news story have been buried about 12 column inches down the page on the Drudge Report? Or would it have been the headline? Would it be completely ignored by the websites of ABC news, CBS news, and NBC news? Would it be ignored by CNN.com, and hidden in the 'US news' page on MSNBC.com? Because that's the treatment the story of the Mormon temples receiving white powder is receiving as of 2:30 EST today.

I'm just saying...

Wiener of the Month

August's WotM is my favorite little Limousine Liberal, Nancy Pelosi.

Little Nancy is letting her stock investment in T. Boone Pickens' natural gas company and her ties to Big Enviro money dictate her decision to prevent an up-down vote on domestic offshore drilling. This venal, corrupt, despicable shrew deserves to be impeached. If Team Donkey had any sense at all, they would replace her as Speaker. She's going to cost them dearly come November.

For being the quintessential corrupt policitian, Nancy Pelosi is the Wiener of the Month!

Little Nancy's on a roll

I'll bet you couldn't tell that I'm no fan of Nancy Pelosi. To me, she's a prime example of Liberalis Limousinus - the most loathsome and despicable creature know to man. She preaches sacrifice and shared responsibility to We The People. But she and her ilk will continue to fly oversized, expensive aircraft, ride in limos, and use enough electricity in one day to power my house for a month. They're despicable.

And Little Nancy's been on quite a roll this week. Quite a roll indeed!

In a statement that can only be filed under "Irony...see irony", Congressman (Congresswoman? CongressShrew?) Nancy had some advice for Hillary Clinton supporters.

"I think that women, we have to get away from the politics of victim. This is about you go out there and you fight," she said.

Wait a second? Do my eyes deceive me? This is the Queen of the Collectivists telling a Special Rights group.......NOT....to engage in Victim Politics?!?!?!?!?! This is definitely a "man bites dog" moment.

Her second moment in the spotlight happened earlier this week at a press conference in Denver. It seems that some McCommie boosters and pro oil-independence demonstrators showed up to heckle our dear, sweet Speakerette.

The demonstrators interrupted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with chants of “Drill here! Drill now!”

Pelosi paused and asked the group, “Right here?”

Seeming to enjoy the back and forth, she followed with another question: “Can we drill your brains?”

Can we drill your brains? What kind of a juvenile retort is THAT? "Yo Mama" would have been a more mature and meaningful response than the one she came up with.

Additional irony moment: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (Fascist-MD) had this to say to the protestors.

“sophomoric chanting” won’t solve the energy crisis and that “all thinking Americans know” — stressing the word "thinking" and looking at the crowd — that America doesn’t have a quarter of the word’s fossil fuels yet uses a quarter of the world’s energy.

Oh sweet irony! The very people who brought us the "show up and shout down speakers we don't agree with" guerrilla tactic now want us to stop with the "sophomoric chanting" when THEY have something to say.

Notice too how the Left is always - ALWAYS - so overly impressed with how "smart" they are. "Thinking Americans". What a joke! People capable of THOUGHT know that these asshats are in bed with Big Enviro and THAT'S why they're opposed to drilling (well, that and Little Nancy's natural gas stock profits).

Senator Cardin - the sequel

I've really got to hand it to Ben Cardin. He'll stand in and take his cuts at the plate, even after I posted a less than flattering analysis of his last response to me.

A little background first. Senator Cardin's first response letter to me was the product of my having voted in one of those dopey Congress.org polls about whether we should drill for oil in "pristine" ANWR or in coastal waters. His reply, in over-simplified summarization was, "no drilling, higher CAFE standards (for 2020!), and alternative fuels". I lampooned Team Donkey's version of "alternative fuels" as "hydrogen, wind, solar, fairy dust, unicorn farts, the aura of Brittney Spears, and healing thoughts." It wasn't a very nice post. Nor should it have been! Let's be adults here, people! Yes, we can look at alternative fuels - great idea! But let's also start building some energy independence (read: tap our OWN oil) rather than depend on our "friends" in the Middle East, Venezuela, and Russia.

Fast forward to now. Another Congress.org poll. Another "Yes, damn it! Drill already!" vote from yours truly. And, amazingly, another reply from Senator Cardin! (Note: the hyperlink takes you to an HTML copy of the letter, recreated as-is, without alteration).

It looks like the Senator is crawling out from under Majority Leader Harry Reed's skirt. Ms. Reed would NEVER tolerate this kind of language!

Our nation's dependence on foreign sources of crude oil is largely to blame for the recent spike in gasoline, diesel, and heating oil prices. Gas and diesel prices in the U.S. are closely linked to prices in the world crude oil market, which has been strained recently by unexpected supply disruptions, increasing worldwide demand, and other factors over which the U.S. government has little or no control. Because the U.S. imports over 65 percent of its crude oil from foreign countries, we are deeply vulnerable to global forces beyond our control.

Many of the foreign countries and regimes which supply us with our oil are openly hostile to our government and the American way of life. Consequently, American consumers have been unintentionally financing anti-American regimes and extremist groups when they pay for gas, compromising our national security one tank at a time.

Rock on, Senator! Spoken like you get it!

Unfortunately, the letter then returns to predictable Team Donkey talking points.

At the same time, American consumption of carbon-rich oil and other fossil fuels is permanently altering our environment. Recently, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report stating with 90 percent certainty that carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases (GHGs) released through burning oil , coal , and other human activity have caused substantial global warming since the 1950's. Many energy and environmental experts believe carbon dioxide concentrations in our atmosphere will double by the middle of the 21st century , due to human influence. This could cause a climate-wide temperature increase of 3.5 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit, and a wide range of other disconcerting consequences, including ocean acidification, melting Arctic ice caps, species extinctions, and rising global sea levels.

Where are my boots? It's getting deep in here! Can we stop already with the faux science Big Global Warming hysteria already? The UN is your source?!?!? C'mon! Those asshats will say anything to bring us one step closer to the Glorious One-World Socialist Utopia!

Then, in yet another plot twist, the Senator returns to reality.

Selling new leases for oil exploration and drilling in areas of the United States that are proven to be rich in oil, such as the Outer Continental Shelf and in the Gulf of New Mexico , may help displace some of the oil we currently import from abroad. This is why I support new lease sales and increased oil and natural gas drilling on the public lands and the parts of the open seas that the government has opened for drilling and where it is possible without great environmental loss . With the price of oil at an all-time high, the economic incentive for oil companies to explore for new oil and gas, drill in untapped reservoirs, and extract more from the wells already built, is higher than ever.

Yes! Drill! Drill!! Drill!!!

The letter ends, predictably, with a rundown of legislative steps Senator Cardin supports that he believes will lead to a solution. There's the predictable "you can't drill your way out of this" paraphrase that is, I suppose, required by DNC mandate.

But, overall, I'd say that Senator Cardin's second reply letter to me was W-A-A-A-A-Y better than his first. At least now he's acknowledging that we need to drill. Now we just have to make sure that he holds to that.

I know he's a junior Senator in his first term. I know that there's a certain amount of "tow the party line" that goes with being a first-term Senator. I get it. But the Senator needs to be his own man. And, most importantly, he needs to do what's best for America, not what's best for Al Gorebells, Richard Branson, T. Boone Pickens, General Electric, and Nancy Pelosi.

One last thought: where is Senator-for-life Barbara Mikulski? She can't be bothered to weigh in with her "solutions"? I guess that's what happens when you've been a Senator since Reconstruction. You can't be bothered with the little people.

Nancy Pelosi: saving the planet, or self-serving money whore?

Nancy Pelosi has been the Speaker of the House for about 1 1/2 years. In that time, she has shown herself to be typical of the genus Liberalis Limousineis that is predominantly found on the Upper West Side and in trendy parts of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, and other large cities. The fact that she flies home EVERY WEEK on an Airforce One-style aircraft at taxpayer expense while preaching to the rest of us to conserve energy is just one example of her LL cred.

Fresh off her Messianic proclamation that she is "trying to save the planet", Ms. Pelosi continues to claim that attempts to vote for offshore drilling constitute "a scam against the American people".

But little Nancy has a secret. Little Nancy has a major conflict of interest. Little Nancy has a chance for a major financial score based on making alternative fuels more attractive.

As I pointed out just three days ago, the major players for "saving the planet" seem to be all about reaping a financial windfall from their eco-scare tactics. Here's "Planet Savior" Nancy's little piece of the pie.

Not surprisingly, the nation's largest provider of natural gas for transportation, Clean Energy Fuels Corporation, or CLNE, has a great deal to gain from the adoption of Pickens' fuel strategy and the passage of Proposition 10. In fact, according to the California Secretary of State website, CLNE has contributed $3,247,250 to supporting Proposition 10's passage.

CLNE, however, was formerly known as Pickens Fuel after its primary investor, T. Boone Pickens.

While Pickens touts a plan in the name of environmentalism that will also line his company's pockets, an investigation has revealed that another environmental champion and backer of Proposition 10 has also invested in CLNE: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.

According to the investigation, Pelosi purchased $50,000-$100,000 in CLNE stock on May 25, 2007, apparently on its initial public offering.

Now the House speaker stands to make a large profit on her reported 22,000 shares of CLNE if she and other public figures can persuade the people of California to vote for Proposition 10 in the name of renewable energy and clean, alternative fuels.

Isn't that special? Little Nancy stands to make a profit on her shares of CLNE...but only if public sentiment towards the shift to alternative energy sources is heightened by high gasoline prices. And who is it that's keeping the price of gasoline high by refusing to allow a simple "yes/no" vote on offshore drilling? Why, none other than little "I'm trying to save the planet/I stand to make buck" Nancy Pelosi.

Let's take roll, shall we?

Al Gorebells - Mr. Global Warming, chief propagandist for Big Climate (owns the company to which he pays his "carbon credits"): hypocrite/charlatan.

Richard Branson - announced a €1.9 billion "gift" to fight global warming (which turns out to be the creation of a new energy company that he owns and from which he will make billions): hypocrite/charlatan.

T. Boone Pickens - crusade to make natural gas part of the alternative fuels effort by pushing for Prop 10 (owns CLNE, so Prop 10 will make him billions): hypocrite/charlatan.

Nancy Pelosi - self-proclaimed planet savior, single-handedly holding up a vote that can make America a little more energy-independent and give consumers a little relief from high gasoline prices (stands to make huge profits on her CLNE stock from public opinion concerning high gasoline prices): hypocrite/charlatan.

By your fruits you shall know them. They're nothing but availability entrepreneurs, using their power and position to further enrich themselves regardless of how it may affect the "little people".

But here's the real pisser in all of this. No one in big media is looking into this apparent and easily-verifiable story. No one in either house of Congress is calling for an investigation. No one is calling for the impeachment of the Speaker. No one is doing anything.

It makes me sick.

Wiener of the Week

For the third week running, the WotW relates to the issue of oil drilling and the Congress that (a) won't vote on it because of the personal mendacity of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (more on that in my next post, coming soon), (b) is using it as an issue to grandstand for political points (Yea Team Elephant! Way to show real leadership by giving speeches in the dark. Asshats!), and (c) is using it as an issue to grandstand for political points (Yea Team Donkey! Way to show real leadership by hiding behind the skirt of your mendacious House leader and parroting her talking points! Asshats!).

Face it, we are suffering not from a surfeit of oil, but from a surfeit of honest, competent leadership.

For their hard work and leadership, appreciated by at least 14% of the populous who still think they're doing a swell job, Congress is the Wiener of the Week.

Wiener of the Week

The WotW for this week is Congress. Natural-born leader Nancy (the Stork) Pelosi, has pulled Team Donkey off the field because ANY vote, whether for drilling or against drilling, will be murder for her team in the upcoming elections. And the other team? They've been grandstanding in the dark, trying desperately to get noticed by a media still more enamored with Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan stories than with the legitimate concerns of the American people. Oh, that and fawning all over Barack {don't say his middle name or you're a racist} Obama.

For fiddling while Rome is burning, Congress is the Wiener of the Week.

Wiener of the Week

This week the WotW goes to Team Donkey for their refusal to even allow a vote on lifting the offshore oil drilling ban.

This is truly an example of the democratic process at work (/sarcasm). We elect representatives to make tough choices that impact the lives of each and every one of us. And they dither. And they dally. And they equivocate. They CAN'T vote. Why? Because voting will put them on the record, one way or another.

Team Elephant is just DYING to vote on this issue because, for a change, they're on the right side of an issue. Team Donkey? They're so beholden to Big Enviro that, if they vote for American interests (a Yes vote), they'll lose the Big Enviro vote (more importantly, they'll lose the Big Enviro money). But if they vote No, Americans will rightly see them as being out of touch with economic reality, and Team Donkey will lose their votes. Lose/lose. That's what happens when your constituency shifts from the people you represent to the money you represent.

For showing true cowardice in the face of adversity, Team Donkey is the Wiener of the Week.

Democrats believe in unicorns

I've got to hand it to the Left. When they take an entrenched position, they absolutely will not abandon it. They'll resort to all manner of illogic, fabrications, diversions, and name-calling. But they will not budge, regardless of facts or the will of the American people.

Recently, I received an email from Congress.org asking if I support drilling in ANWR. Given that "f'in A!!!" wasn't a response option, I answered "Yes". I was then presented with a form that allowed me to write a note to my Congressman and Senators. I thought, "Hey, why not? They'll ignore it, but it'll make me feel better."

I don't recall precisely what I wrote, nor did I save a copy of it, mainly because in the past, when I have sent these emails to my "representatives" I haven't heard squawdoosh from them. I do recall writing words to the effect that we've got to stop letting the environmental wackos dictate our country's energy policy.

To my utter surprise, I received an email reply from Senator Ben Cardin, or, at least, from one of his interns. The complete text of the email can be seen here. I did not modify anything; I only wrapped it in HTML for purposes of formatting. So all typos and misspellings are left as-is, as are the Senator's words. I mention this only so that I can't be accused of tampering with the letter to make lefties look ridiculous. Trust me, they don't need any help from ME to look ridiculous.

Here are some highlights of the letter.

• The Senator believes that depleting the Strategic Reserve and voting for higher gas mileage standards (standards which won't be in effect until 2020) are efforts "to address rising gasoline prices".


• The Senator is against drilling in ANWR. These are his exact words: "Drilling in ANWR would be a short-term distraction from the new long-term solutions we need to power and fuel our nation."


• According to the Senator, ANWR "harbors a primeval wilderness ecosystem that is home to some of the most diverse wildlife habitats in the United States." Quoth the Senator: "Oil exploration and drilling are incompatible with the purposes for which this incomparable wilderness ecosystem has been set aside."


• Finally, the Senator goes through the laundry list of "renewable" energy sources we SHOULD be investing in instead of just drilling for dumb-old oil. You know, hydrogen, wind, solar, fairy dust, unicorn farts, the aura of Brittney Spears, and healing thoughts. Okay, I made the last four up. Just checking to see if you're paying attention.

Okay, let me start by commending Senator Cardin for having the decency to respond and to do so not with words I want to hear, but with how he really votes and will vote going forward. I know Senator Cardin is just a Freshman in the Senate, but he was a long-time Congressman prior to being elected Senator, so he's no novice making novice mistakes. He's showing an honesty and candor that I find refreshing and commendable, even though he's dead wrong on all counts.

• Voting for depletion of the Strategic Reserve isn't a solution to anything (except to assure that it'll have to be replenished in the future at higher prices).


• Drilling in ANWR is a "short-term distraction"? Are you f'ing kidding me?!?!? The economic ignorance of our elected officials (on both sides of the aisle) is staggering! When demand for a commodity is high, the ONLY way to reduce its cost is to increase supply. That's not rocket science, that's Econ 101.


• Waxing poetic about the "incomparable wilderness ecosystem" that is ANWR is a tired tactic. ANWR is a sh*thole. It's a frozen wasteland that makes Hell look like paradise.


• I'm sick to death of the fairy tale pursuit of so-called renewable resources. Solar power research has been ongoing since the 70's. How's that working out? There's NOTHING to show for any of it. Wind power? It's a band-aid, and it kills birds who fly into the windmill blades. Hydrogen? Nothing but talk -- there aren't even any prototypes on the horizon. No, only unicorn farts qualifies as a more ridiculous solution to a shortage of gasoline than the aforementioned fairy tales.

Now, I don't fault Senator Cardin completely for the nonsensical "solutions" he's proposing. He's following his marching orders from the Senate leadership, primarily that colossal mental midget, Harry Reid. What I DON'T get is this. Why in the name of all that is holy don't the American people demand that Congress stop dallying with "solutions" and start opening up drilling? And by drilling, I mean pretty much drilling anywhere, because that's what it's going to take to reclaim America's energy independence.

In the meantime, the Lefties will continue their Quixotic search for their magical "renewable resources", and we'll be kept at the mercy of our oil-supplying "friends".