Something Obama Has Done Right by Craig Covello

This week, a friend of mine who knows me well, and therefore understands my conservative views, challenged me with a question.

"I know you think Obama has done almost everything wrong. What do you think he is done right?"

I stumbled for answer, but eventually offered that Obama has done a relatively good job killing terrorists in the Middle East using the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). That's about all I could come up with until I reflect upon something that Michelle Obama said while stumping for her husband during the 2008 presidential campaign:

"Barack Obama is going to require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation. That you move out of your comfort zone. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual. Uninvolved, and uninformed."

Yes, I admit to criticizing this statement in some past OWD articles because it was reflective of the arrogance of this administration in attempting to dictate what Obama is going to require of me. It is a blatant proclamation of what Barack will demand that I do and what he is going to allow and not allow regarding my personal life. But there is an ironic twist. My friend's question made me come to the realization that Obama may actually be saving this country instead of destroying it. No, that's not sarcasm. Allow me to explain.

You see, many of us never really had much interest in politics up until now.

• We allowed Congress and past presidents, including Bush, to run up the national debt on a steady, predictable course.

• We permitted the federal government unrestricted growth and unreasonable domination over so many areas of our lives.

• We stood by and watched administrative agencies such as the EPA exercise almost totalitarian control over so many decisions, which should be left to the discretion of state and local government. The confusion and incompetence associated with attempts to clean up the Gulf oil spill is a sad but accurate example.

• We let George Bush pass the Patriot Act, which allowed the executive branch of government to issue search warrants, virtually eliminating our system of judicial checks and balances regarding rights to privacy.

• We saw Reagan give amnesty to illegal aliens in the hope that it would be a final cure-all, only to find ourselves in a more threatened position today regarding the security of our borders.

• No one paid much attention to Barney Frank's sanctimonious speeches in Congress touting the soundness of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while promising affordable housing for everyone regardless of their ability to pay a mortgage.

• We let the President of the United States drag us into the Iraq war without a clear strategic vision or exit strategy.

• We permitted Congress to languish on implementing reasonable healthcare legislation designed to contain costs, increase portability and limit the staggering amount of our money going into the pockets of lawyers.

• We let politicians divide us by emphasizing differences in race, religion and economic status instead of uniting us as a nation of proud Americans. Americans who prefer to celebrate our accomplishments instead of denigrating our culture and heritage.

• We allowed the federal government to gradually take away our freedoms in exchange for bribing us with our own tax dollars.

All of this happened because many of us had forgotten the brilliance of our founding fathers and the importance of their gift to this country called the United States Constitution.

But Obama has changed all that. He has exponentially accelerated the progressive's agenda for this country to the point where the shift in ideology is no longer gradual or progressive. It is radical, impatient and demanding. And now it is drawing attention from all of us who are dramatically opposed to Obama's stated purpose of "fundamentally transforming the United States of America".

I remember when I was a teenager sneaking into the house late at night. We had a burglar alarm with a motion sensor covering the family room. I learned that moving very, very slowly would not set off the alarm. That's the trick, which progressives learned almost 100 years ago. And it worked. They have been making incremental steps at a pace so slow that no one has really noticed the damage being done to our economic and social freedom. But now Obama has galvanized a very small percentage of the American population who consider themselves revolutionaries. Their ignorance, impatience and narcissism are on display. In the process, they have sprinted past the motion sensor and are now drawing more attention to themselves than Lady Gaga at a Yankees game. That's a good thing, because the first step in the road to recovery is recognizing the problem.

Thank you, Mr. President. Mission accomplished.

Copyright 2010 by Craig Covello.  All rights reserved.  Used with Permission

Slight of Hand by Ira Scwhartz

"Scientists say they have developed a car that can run on water. The only catch is, the water has to come from the Gulf of Mexico." -Jay Leno

That was the way Jay Leno opened the “Tonight Show” several weeks ago. He continued..

"Well, folks, here's the latest update. I guess this is good news. BP officials say the 'top kill' plan is working. The bad news — BP officials are a bunch of lying weasels."

It appears that even the entertainment industry can see through the smoke screen BP has put up and by the level of applause from the crowd most of us do also. So why is it so hard to get a straight answer out of BP? The only thing I can think of is the BP spin machine is working about as well as their Deepwater Horizon drill rig. Here are the latest figures from the Gulf.

As of June 15th scientists estimate that around 60,000 barrels of oil a day is spilling into the gulf from the remains of the BP Deepwater rig Horizon. That’s 2.5 million gallons. It is estimated that 25,000 barrels a day is being captured by BP which still leaves 35,000 barrels left to pollute the American gulf and southern east coast.

So what really happened out there in the Gulf of Mexico? It appears, according to an AP report by an oil pipeline safety expert, a methane bubble escaped and made it to the surface. The expert explained that deep beneath the sea floor, methane gas is in a slushy, crystalline form. As the workers removed pressure from the well and introduced heat, the cement seal around the pipe destabilized, creating a gas bubble. It intensified and grew, breaking through the rig's various safety barriers. Once it reached the surface it ignited and exploded. A device called a “Blowout Preventer” was supposed to protect the rig from just this kind of an accident. So why didn’t it? A “60 Minutes” interview with a survivor of the explosion, Mike Williams, sheds light on that story.

Mr. Williams told “60 Minutes” that the Blowout Preventers seal was damaged in an accident weeks before the explosion. When a Transocean supervisor (Transocean owns the Deepwater rig run by BP) was told of the problem he said it was “no big deal” and operations continued. Mr. Williams continued that BP and Transocean managers had been arguing over who was in charge in the hours before the spill, disagreeing on how to seal the well.

Dr. Bob Bea, a UC Berkeley engineering professor interviewed by “60 Minutes,” told them that the pre-accident problems with the blowout preventer should have been fixed immediately. He continued that when BP won the argument about how to seal the well, the methods they decided on, while faster, were more dangerous than Transocean’s, and may have caused the blowout.

But while BP is assuredly the organization who pulled the trigger let’s just see who it was that loaded the gun.

The organization that is responsible for regulating all off shore drilling of oil and gas in US waters is the Minerals and Management Service, a section of the Department of Interior. This departments duel responsibility was:

1) To entice companies to drill for oil and gas in United States waters, then collect the royalties from the minerals, oil and gas, they extracted.

2) To insure that said industry followed the regulations established for off shore drilling by the United States.

I don’t know about you but that sounds like a huge conflict of interest to me. Is it any surprise that several disturbing stories about the MMS have begun surfacing since the Gulf disaster happened? One article published in the Wall Street Journal lists a number of instances where the MMS had pointed out potential safety problem in the industry, urged the industry to consider doing something about it, but in the end gave in to the industry's decisions and in many cases ignored the recommendations it was given by the independent experts commissioned to study the problems. One of those problems involved “Blowout Preventers”. The very piece of equipment whose failure lead to the explosion and death of 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon.

So it comes as no surprise that the Minerals and Mining Service Director, Elizabeth Birnbaum, decided at the end of May to resign from her position. Soon after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced, in a press conference, that Ms. Birnbaum’s department, the MMS, was going to be broken up into small, more manageable sections. It appears that Ms. Birnbaum will now be made the scapegoat for the last two administrations failure to properly monitor one of its major departments. Damage control at its best.

BP has also been doing some damage control of its own. Tony Hayward, Chief Executive of BP and until recently the face of the Gulf oil spill, has been replaced by Robert Dudley. BP hopes that Dudley, an American and Mississippi native, will be able to repair some of the damage the cold and uncaring Hayward caused. Somehow I don’t see that happening.

Now a Federal judge has blocked the White House’s six month moratorium on off shore drilling. Martin L.C. Feldman, U.S. 5th District Court in New Orleans stated in the text of his injunction that,

“The court is unable to divine or fathom a relationship between the findings and the immense scope of the moratorium,” Feldman said in his 22-page decision. “The blanket moratorium, with no parameters, seems to assume that because one rig failed and although no one yet fully knows why, all companies and rigs drilling new wells over 500 feet also universally present an imminent danger.”

I guess Judge Feldman has yet to watch the news or simply look out his window at all the fishing vessels sitting in the harbor growing barnacles on their hulls. Or is it the Judge is more concerned about keeping “Big Oils” money in Louisiana then the death of 12 people and the continued destruction of the gulfs eco system.

This moratorium is needed until the Federal Government can get the proper safeguards in place to insure this will never happen again. To those that say, “The big oil companies will just leave and drill somewhere else” I say let them. There is still a lot of oil under the Gulf of Mexico and those greedy, bloodsuckers that run the big oil companies will be tripping over each other to file their permits as soon as the moratorium is lifted.

While all the world is distracted by the Gulf disaster BP is quietly preparing to begin drilling off the Alaska Coast. A NY Times article explains that BP is about to start drilling “two miles under the sea and then six to eight miles horizontally to reach what is believed to be a 100-million-barrel reservoir of oil under federal waters.”

How is this project allowed to continue while all others have been temporarily halted? It appears that BP is exempt, federal regulators have decided this is an “On Shore” drilling project despite the fact it is located three miles off the coast of the Beaufort Sea. The regulators explanation is it is “on Shore” because it sits on an artificial island — a 31-acre pile of gravel in about 22 feet of water — built by BP.

But this irresponsibility goes even further than semantics.

I now quote the article, “Rather than conducting their own independent analysis, federal regulators, in a break from usual practice, allowed BP in 2007 to write its own environmental review for the project as well as its own consultation documents relating to the Endangered Species Act, according to two scientists from the Alaska office of the federal Mineral Management Service that oversees drilling.

The environmental assessment was taken away from the agency’s unit that typically handles such reviews, and put in the hands of a different division that was more pro-drilling, said the scientists, who discussed the process because they remained opposed to how it was handled.

“The whole process for approving Liberty was bizarre,” one of the federal scientists said.

The scientists and other critics say they are worried about a replay of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico because the Liberty project involves a method of drilling called extended reach that experts say is more prone to the types of gas kicks that triggered the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon.”

So the cast has now increased as the “slight of hand” continues and for all intent and purposes it appears that the right hand of the Federal Government “still” doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. Or does it?

© 2010 by Ira Schwartz. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

It's the Economy Stupid!

Frankly, I think the time has come to stop talking about BP, The Gulf Oil Spill or the Ecological disaster caused by it. Yes, it is the greatest man-made disaster in history. Yes, it will affect the beauty of the beaches in the Gulf. Yes, it will cause wildlife damage for decades. But: Enough! The Gulf is a problem. But, it is not the biggest problem facing our country at the moment. It will be cleaned up and the flow of oil will eventually stop.

The only thing about the Gulf that is good for the Obama Administration is that it is causing the rest of the country to forget the disaster that it is the US Economy right now. And, of course, the spin doctors in the White House are doing their best to keep the country and media off of the economy. Maybe that is why the Obama Administration wants everyone thinking that he messed up in the Gulf. As long as the Gulf Oil Spill is news, the economy is being ignored and Obama does not have to answer for his mess ups in that regard.

Yesterday, the Consumer Price Index was released for the month of May. It showed a .2 percent drop. The April number showed a .1 percent drop. That means we have now had two consecutive months of deflation which is surprising considering that the government is spending and printing fiat money likes it is going out of style. Deflation is one of the worst things that can happen to an economy. When prices go down, companies do not hire, people do not spend because of fear of job security, corporate profits go down and unemployment starts to go up. It can then become a spiral that gets out of control as it did in the 1930s during the Great Depression and Japan in 1990s.

This is further compounded when you look at the employment numbers for the past week and for the month of May. Last week initial jobless claims went up to 472,000. This was the third week in a row that the numbers were higher than expected. Continuing claims also rose to 4.57 million; which was also unexpected. The unemployed or underemployed continue to rise even though it is not shown in the official numbers because many are falling off of the unemployment roles.

Two weeks ago President Obama made a big deal about the unemployment rate dropping a percentage point. It is still 9.7% however which is higher than anybody expected and way above the 8% cap that the failed stimulus bill was supposed to hold it at. He also bragged about the roughly 450,000 new jobs that were created during the month. He bragged until everyone pointed out to him that 410,000 of them were temporary census workers and only 40,000 jobs had been created in the private sector.

Once that had been brought up, the bragging from the White House stopped. What did Obama do? He started talking about the Gulf. He didn’t talk about the Gulf for the six prior weeks except in passing. But, now he’s obsessed with it. Take the mind off of the real crisis that will cost him votes and spend time on something that he hopes can make him look good. But, of course, that is failing too. His speech on Tuesday night was an unmitigated disaster seen as such from both the left and the right.

The speech did have some effect though. It strong-armed BP into putting more than 20 billion dollars into the White House’s hands for the victims of the Gulf Oil disaster. That is right, I used the term “strong armed.” So did Texas Republican Congressman Joe Barton. He has been castigated by both parties because of it. I hope I am too. Barton is right. This tactic used by the White House is just another example of the Chicago thugs in action.

This matter should have been resolved in the courts by BP interpleading the money into the court system. BP has said from the beginning that it will pay for the damages caused by the spill. Now, BP has kowtowed to the White House and what will happen?

We will have another czar hired to divvy up the fund. He will hire another 50 or so people to administrate the fund. They will hire lawyers, accountants, etc., to evaluate the claims. And, who will pay for this new public entity? It will either come from the fund or from the taxpayers. If it comes from the fund, then BP has just created another bureaucracy of which none of the money will end up in the hands of people who need it. If it comes from the taxpayer, I say why? More big government, more public sector jobs: No help for the little man or the small businessman. Obama just does not care. He does not care about Main Street or the wreck that is the US Economy.

That seems to be the main mindset at the White House these days. He talks about caring and hope and change, but he doesn’t. He sits there all day listening to advisors and makes no decisions. However, he does play a lot of golf. President Bush played some and was castigated for it. The man sitting there now plays much more.

And, when he does make decisions they are not always in the best interests of the country. This morning, I read an Article on the Obama White Diaries: http://www.obamawhitehousediaries.com/. The Article talks about the President abandoning a portion of Arizona 80 miles away from the Mexican border because it is too violent. The Mexican drug cartels make it too dangerous for Americans to travel into the area. This is part of the United States. This is not Mexico we are talking about. It is not even a border town.

Instead of investigating the Arizona Immigration law, the Justice Department and its chief Eric Holder, should put the FBI and US Troops into this area and clean it up. Get the Mexican drug lords out and make it part of Arizona again. Of course, if Arizona does it themselves, it will be castigated even more by the Central Government.

A strong enforcement of the immigration laws is another way to help the economy. Get rid of the illegals and maybe the unemployment rate will drop a few points. Protect the border and more jobs will be created. However, this will just infuriate another Democratic voting block. And, we already know, that is the last thing the President wants or needs at this point based upon his recent poll numbers.

So, what does he do instead? He talks about kicking ass over the Gulf Oil Spill. After all, it makes people forget the real problem facing the country: “it’s the economy stupid!”

© 2010 by Frank T. DeMartini

The Tip of the Sword by Ira Schwartz

“If the Arabs put down their weapons today there would be no more violence.

If the Jews put down their weapons today there would be no more Israel.”

That is how I opened my October 4th article “Friends Forever”. It basically discussed the long and fruitful friendship Israel and the United States has enjoyed over the years. It’s still a good read and is listed in “The Hollywood Republicans” October ’09 archive.

In that article I went on to say..

“When the discussions with Iran fail, and they eventually will, it will be Israeli aircraft that take out the Iranian nuclear reactors not US fighters. Again we will publicly condemn them for this but privately applaud them for doing what we could not do without starting another war. Why would they do this? Because that’s what friends do.”

That statement is now even closer to the truth than when it was originally written. As I write this article Iranian “aid” ships are heading for Gaza determined to confront Israeli warships enforcing the Israeli blockade around Palestine. The Iranians say their ships carry medical aid, supplies and volunteers. The Israeli’s and most of the rest of the world are highly skeptical.

We all know what happened the last time ships tried to run the Israeli blockade. Despite at least a half dozen warning by the Israeli gun boats for the Turkish ships to turn around they continued. When the Israeli commandos boarded the ships they were immediately attacked with pipes and knives by those peace loving volunteers Turkey said were on board. Several YouTube videos of the incident clearly show the Israelis not to be the aggressors and were only defending themselves against this premeditated ambush. When the smoke cleared nine of the peace loving activists had been killed and six Israeli soldiers were injured, one severely.

To add insult to injury a Senior Hamas member, Ismail Raduan, responded to the IDF takeover on the vessels sailing to Gaza, saying that "this is state-sponsored organized terror. We are calling on the international community to do something. These are crimes against humanity and against our Palestinian people.”

Now this is the same Hamas that had no problem launching suicide bomber attacks against Israel from 1993 to 2005. In all 377 Israeli civilians and soldiers were killed and over 2,000 injured. But since they are now a legitimate government, so to speak, it’s okay for them to cry foul and expect the whole world to listen. Unfortunately those brain dead morons at the UN did. And in their infinite wisdom have decided to launch an investigation into the whole matter. Israel said, “Thanks but no thanks” we can investigate it ourselves. And they made it very clear that no Israeli will participate in any way with the UN probe. Surprisingly the United States actually backed Israel.

In late May Israel deployed three nuclear submarines to the Gulf region, well within striking distant of Iran. All three submarines are said to be carrying nuclear weapons. Those submarines join two Israeli missile cruisers that have been on station there since February.

But this is just the beginning. Earlier this week the Saudi Arabian government quietly gave Israel permission for her strike aircraft to use Saudi airspace on any bombing missions to Iran. It is not a secret that the Saudis, Egyptians and Jordanians, who are Sunnis, hate the Iranians, who are Shiite. The two groups have been killing each other for hundreds of years over which, Shiite or Sunni, is the rightful heir to Muhammad. The thought of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons has forced the three countries to put their differences aside with Israel and assist them anyway they can. I guess the old saying, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” is true if only for a short time.

And what is the United States doing while all of this is going on? The Obama administration is still trying the diplomatic approach with more sanctions that China and Russia keep watering down. Meanwhile Iran gets closer and closer to developing at least two nuclear devices. But we don’t have to worry this time because we are not the target. Iran’s target is and always has been Israel. And we can be sure the Israelis will do whatever they have to to insure the safety of their people. Something our present administration seems to have forgotten how to do.

But if the Middle East goes nuclear you can be sure it won’t stop there. And all the death that will be incurred will be the responsibility of every nation that is a member of the UN’s Security Council. Because all the warning signs are there and plain to see but Russia, China, England and the United States would rather play politics than take them seriously.

I could not end this article without commenting on the anti-Semitic remarks made by Helen Thomas, a member of the White House Press Corp for the last 57 years. For those of you who don’t know what she said a link has been provided to the video. The Hearst Corporation, her employer, forced her to retire after she said that all the Jews in Palestine should “get the hell out” and go home to Poland, Germany and America. Thomas, soon to turn 90, must have forgotten why the Jews left Poland and Germany in the first place. After all she was only in her mid twenties when it happened. (Thank you Jon Stewart). I won’t elaborate further and only say, “Bye, bye Helen. You departure is long overdue.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVlg01QMN3k&feature=player_embedded

© 2010 by Ira Schwartz. Used with Permission. All Rights Reserved

The President Admits His Limited Power Regarding Gulf Oil Spill by Craig Covello

Late last week, the government shared a new estimate with us which was both sobering and a little frightening. The daily volume of oil rushing from the British Petroleum ruptured drilling rig in the Gulf is now appears to be double that of previous estimates. 1.3 million gallons of petroleum is spilling into the Gulf every day. That translates into 30,000 barrels of oil over a 24-hour period. To put this into perspective, the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 polluted Prince William Sound with approximately about 11,000,000 gallons. Assuming that 1.3 million gallons has been flowing into the Gulf for each of the last 56 days, that would mean BP lost nearly 7 times the oil spilled in Alaska. And there is no end in sight until the situation is contained.

There has been so much information published regarding this environmental tragedy that it's hard to sift through all the facts and editorial opinions on the Internet. I would, however, want to distill this issue down to a limited number of very important points:

• This is the worst environmental disaster in history of America.

• The president is supposed to be in charge, period. According to the National Oil and Hazardous Substance Pollution Contingency Plan: "The president shall direct all federal, state and private actions to remove the discharge can mitigate or prevent the threat of the discharge. The President may, without regard to any other provision of law governing contracting procedures or employment of personnel by the federal government".

• Excuses purporting that the federal government has limited powers due to the Jones Act of 1920 are ridiculous. The president has the power to waive any law impeding the cleanup effort.

• 13 governments and organizations offered assistance to the United States within two weeks of the Horizon rig explosion. They include Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and United Nations. In fact, the Dutch government offered to provide ships with oil skimming booms within 72 hours after the explosion. These ships can process 5,000,000 gallons of water a day, removing 20,000 tons of oil and sludge every 24 hours. There is also a Belgian group, DEME, which claims it can clean up the oil spill in 3 to 4 months with their own special equipment. Unfortunately, all these offers of assistance were either refused or ignored by the White House.

• Five weeks ago, Escambia County officials requested permission from the federal Mobile Unified Command Center to use a sand skimmer in order to remove oil and tar from Pensacola's beaches. They had not yet been given the courtesy of a response.

• On May 11, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal requested federal authorization is so his state may begin emergency dredging and berming activity. The US Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency approved only 2% of his plan. They believe that too many berms would alter the tidal movements. Louisiana State Sen. David Vitter was understandably angry, stating that "The president doesn't seem to have a clue. His decision on the emergency dredging barrier island plan is a thinly veiled no. Approving 2% of the requests and kicking the rest months down the road is outrageous, absolutely outrageous".

• In Auburn Maine, a company named Packgen has miles of oil spill containment booms on hand, palletized and ready for shipment. They also have the capability to produce upwards of 100,000 linear feet of the boom equipment each day. BP has inspected their facility at least twice, but has not committed to making any purchases. Instead, they are investigating whether they can get a better deal from China.

• Obama has not yet spoken to BP chief executive Tony Hayward. The excuse he offered was that speaking to Hayward would have been a waste of time.

• Both BP and the government have withheld much of the information concerning the spell. Stan Senner, the Director of Conservation Science for Ocean Conservancy is on record as saying "There is an amazing lack of information about what's being done and what the government knows".

• The Louisiana governor sent a letter to the secretaries of the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security requesting National Guard assistance of approximately 6000 soldiers and airmen for 90 days, as authorized by Title 32 of the United States code. It appears that they are preparing for the worst, including a possible evacuation of several million people.

So what exactly is Obama's focus?

He wants it made clear that this disaster is not his fault by issuing a statement:

"Even though I am the president of the United States, my power isn't limitless. So I can't drive down there and plug the hole... I can't suck it up with the straw".

He does, however, appear to have limitless power when it comes to using this tragedy to propel the White House's agenda. Specifically,

• He has issued a moratorium on oil exploration in the Gulf, which will cost Louisiana approximately $3 billion in revenue and the loss of about approximately 7600 jobs. It also is one step closer to making is totally dependent upon foreign oil.

• He wants to continue to study the situation.

• He wants to continue unemployment benefits.

• He wants to use the crisis to leverage increased investment in solar, wind and bio diesel.

• He wants to pass climate legislation in order to tax and reduce energy consumption in the United States.

Last Thursday, the president hosted a meeting of congressional leaders from both parties to underscore this agenda. Here's what he said:

"And so it’s going to be important that, based on facts, based on experts, based on a thorough examination of what went wrong here and where things have gone right, but also where things have gone wrong, that we update the laws to make sure that the people in the Gulf, the fishermen, the hotel owners, families who are dependent for their livelihoods in the Gulf, that they are all made whole and that we are in a much better position to respond to any such crisis in the future. "

"I’m actually going to have a group of CEOs this afternoon who’ve come in from a wide range of different industries -- people from Bill Gates of Microsoft to the former chairman of DuPont who have come up with a series of recommendations about how we need to move much more aggressively on the energy agenda."

"And although obviously our immediate task is to deal with a crisis that is affecting millions of people down in the Gulf, we can’t keep our eye off the importance of having an energy policy that meets the needs of the next generation and ensures that the United States is the leader when it comes to energy policy. We are not yet that leader, and that’s what I want us to do.”

Analysis:

This administration is incompetent. True, the White House cannot simply turn a valve and stop the leak. But that is no excuse for deferring the situation solely to BP and vilifying the oil industry. That is no excuse for refusing the resources of the international community. That is no excuse for lack of presidential leadership.

This situation also underscores that we, as Americans, should not stand by and let the incompetence of a centralized federal government extend total domination over healthcare, energy exploration, auto manufacturing, insurance, student loans, mortgages, education, the Internet, our personal income potential or our right to free speech.

Mr. President, please don't be so modest. Yes, you are incompetent. However, your incompetent powers do appear to be limitless. Just look what you done to this country during the past 18 months. And just like the oil spill, it may take this nation 20 years to recover from the rest of your legacy.

Vote in November.

© 2010 by Craig Covello. Used With Permission. All Rights Reserved.

Saudi Arabia gives Israel clear skies to attack Iranian nuclear sites - Times Online

It's about time somebody sees the importance in this. Now, let Israel due it.


Saudi Arabia gives Israel clear skies to attack Iranian nuclear sites - Times Online

Marco Rubio Gets It

Here is an article by Jeniffer Rubin about the Obama Administration's position on Israel that shows the Republican Candidate for the Senate in Florida, Marco Rubio, gets it and understands why we have to support his candidacy and support Israel against Muslim Extremists.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/311631

Gallup Daily: Obama Job Approval

Well, the lines for Obama have finally crossed. His job approval is lower than his disapproval. As a friend of mine has been saying: "Hooray for Change."

Gallup Daily: Obama Job Approval

The (Not So) Great Pretender

To all of my readers: This article is great and is worth a repost. It pretty much says it all about the man attempting to run the government. If you have time, click on the You Tube videos. It is truly amazing how bad our current president is when there is not a teleprompter there to save him.


The (Not So) Great Pretender

Lieberman/Collins Proposed Bill Giving DHS Emergency Internet Powers by Craig Covello

This week has been full of headlines. The Gulf oil spill has monopolized most of the media's conversation, and justifiably so. There was also the revelation that the senior White House staff adviser Valerie Jarrett and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel had been subpoenaed in the corruption trial of ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. And just as the Sestak scandal is heating up, it now appears that White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Jim Messina, made a similar attempt to bribe Andrew Romanoff into dropping his bid for the Democratic Senate race in Colorado. There was also the Israeli attack on Gaza flotilla. Oh, and the Gores have decided to dissolve their 40 year marriage. It's been a busy week.

But the intent of the Obama White House Diaries website (http://www.obamawhitehousediaries.com//) is to try to discover what the left hand of the federal government is doing while we are distracted by the right-hand. You may recall that the Obama White House Diaries published a story on May 6 entitled "Meet Susan Crawford, the White House's Internet Czar". It discussed Crawford's views on Internet regulation, her desire to save the newspapers from declining readership and the federal government's goal to provide subsidized high-speed Internet service to all low income households. She also believes in the concept of "net neutrality", which purports that private sector Internet service providers should not be allowed to create tiered pricing structures based upon content and offerings. Instead, they should be federally regulated as "utilities" with strict price controls. This is analogous to telling Dish Network that it cannot charge a premium for HBO or Showtime. These ideas do not seem to embrace the concept of free enterprise, but then again, neither does the Obama administration.

So it may come as no surprise that senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins have drafted a bill which would give the Department of Homeland Security emergency powers over private data networks, including local area networks and servers within companies, based upon a perceived or predicted cyber attack. Specifically, the bill states:

• “The President may issue a declaration of an imminent cyber threat to covered critical infrastructure.”

• DHS's National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications will “develop and coordinate emergency measures or actions necessary to preserve the reliable operation, and mitigate or remediate the consequences of the potential disruption, of covered critical infrastructure.”

• “The owner or operator of covered critical infrastructure shall comply with any emergency measure or action developed by the Director”

• The DHS cybersecurity director has to ensure that the emergency measures “represent the least disruptive means feasible” and that “the privacy and civil liberties of United States persons are protected,”

This bill appears to be another version of similar legislation previously proposed by Senators Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe. In the interest of “national security”, their bill which would have given the federal government the ultimate power to disconnect the Internet. The proposal created such public outrage that it died a quick death. This new bill, however, may get legs.

It naturally begs the question: Is there a problem with the Lieberman/Collins proposal? After all, having a plan to minimize the damage of a cyber attack seems like a noble idea. But perhaps it may not be appropriate when considering the following facts:

• In April, a Pew poll reported that only 22% of Americans surveyed now trust the government in Washington. Almost 33% of those surveyed also believe that the government is a major threat to their personal freedoms and they want a reduction of federal powers.

• This administration has demonstrated an appetite for seizing control of private companies in the face of economic adversity. Sectors include health care, automotive, banking, insurance and student loans. And of course, the federal government now owns over half of the home mortgages in America.

• Despite the positive spin in Obama's press conference last week regarding the Gulf oil spill, the federal government has done an extremely poor job of providing leadership, coordinating efforts and communicating information. Ironically, Washington has been paralyzed in balancing this environmental threat with current EPA legislation and policy. We are now into day 45.

• The Department of Homeland Security has had a difficult time in getting one step ahead of terrorist activity. The Fort Hood massacre, the incompetent underwear bomber and the equally incompetent Times Square bomber immediately come to mind.

Analysis: The proposed cyber bill would give the president power to seize control over private networks based upon his understanding of a perceived security flaw coupled with any rumors of an attack. There are no guidelines associated with either of these determinations. In short, it's simply the president's personal decision whether or not to take over a private companies Internet operations. These emergency measures are supposed to remain in place for no more than 30 days, but they can be extended indefinitely. This unilateral authority is not accountable to Congress or to the Judiciary.

So here's the question: Are you comfortable with that?

© 2010 by Craig Covello. Used with Permission. All Rights Reserved.

VJ Day in Hawaii

Hey Everyone!  This is not a political blog per se.  However, it is a piece of Americana and love of country that I think you should all watch.  It is a video of VJ Day in Hawaii that has appeared on the internet.  There is a song being song by Jimmy Durante on the piece.  This little 16 mm film shows the celebrations on VJ Day and gives a good look of what Honolulu was like in 1945.

I hope you all enjoy it and I also hope I'm not infringing on anyone's copyright by posting the URL here.

http://vimeo.com/5645171

Thanks!