Washington Examiner: Daily Outrage

Who: The National Institutes of Health

What: The NIH sent more than $90 million of taxpayer money to China to fund several public health research projects, according to the Daily Caller. In one of those studies, which cost $17 million, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a study of prostitutes, some only 14 years old, and their clients that looked into the use of microbicides as a way to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

Where to vent: Call NIH Director Francis Collins at 301-496-2433.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/daily-outrage/2011/08/daily-outrage-17-million-china-study-prostitutes-and-microbicides#ixzz1TsTLSoWb

Friday Digest

Goverment run healthcare: Medicare

As it now stands, if Congress does not act, doctors who treat Medicare patients face a 21 percent rollback in reimbursement rates beginning Tuesday...an American Medical Association poll of its members showed that if the planned cuts go into effect, two-thirds of doctors now treating Medicare patients will limit their Medicare cases, if not quit altogether. This will also affect military -- both active duty and retired -- because their Tricare insurance is tied to Medicare. Happy Memorial Day.

Democrats continually weak on national security
Why would they refuse to send 6,000 national guard troops to the border with Mexico? Excerpt: Senate Democrats managed Thursday to block deployment of 6,000 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, but the proposal still garnered a majority of senators, showing widespread support for a border-security-first strategy and underscoring why President Obama is having difficulty trying to win an immigration-legalization bill.

How's that stimulus bill working out?
The economic rebound last quarter turned out to be slower than first thought, one of the reasons unemployment is likely to stay high this year. The only thing the stimulus is stimulating is the growth in government. Democrats have had control of the Congress for three years, but as usual, liberal programs do not work.

Fannie and Freddie still broken. But of course...
The oil spill in the Gulf isn't the only calamity the administration is ignoring. As a result of the BP accident, anywhere from $400,000 to $7 million worth of crude oil is leaking into the ocean each day, threatening widespread environmental damage. A much larger leak - $232 million per day - has come from taxpayer vaults since Sept. 7, 2008, when mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac came seeking the first billion-dollar patch for their fiscal mismanagement. And there's no plug in sight for that gusher.

Obama struggling to show he's in control of oil spill
A defensive President Obama sought Thursday to quell doubts about his handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, insisting that his administration has been "in charge" from the moment it began and bristling that critics who accuse it of being sluggish to react "don't know the facts." But at times during a 63-minute news conference in the East Room of the White House, the president seemed to undercut his own argument. He enumerated a litany of fumbles and lapses...(and he wants the government to run our health care system?)

And finally, but not least by a long shot:

The BIG Lie
"The Democratic Congress and the Obama administration share a strong commitment to fiscal discipline and common sense in our budget, and we must continue to do everything in our power to boost our economic recovery, rein in the deficits we inherited, and remain responsible stewards of the public purse. After President Bush and Republicans in Congress turned record surpluses into record deficits and nearly doubled the national debt, Democrats are returning our nation to a course of fiscal responsibility." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on her own party's quadrupling of even the worst Bush deficit

Thoughts for Friday

Big Brother is watching you
The Obama Administration wants to be able to track your location (or actually your cellphone's location) without a warrant. See CNET. Remember when Democrats loudly complained about the Patriot Act? About listening to suspected terrorist phone calls originating from overseas?

Pelosi blames Republicans for her troubles
Pelosi is blaming Republicans for a lack of bipartisanship. See MSNBC. She's nuts. Her other complaints about what Republicans are doing now is over the same things her party did when Republicans had a majority. And Republicans have been blocked several times when they have tried to add admendments to bills, only to have them thrown out by Pelosi and Reid, before a vote could be called.

The government and your children
Our First Lady's mission is fat children. We can all applaud her for that. But according to Julie Gunlock at National Review, Michelle Obama's plan starts with the Federal government, then the State governments, then the City governments, and then the parents. Shouldn't this be the other way around?

Dear Joe: Please shut up
And then there's Joe Biden. Didn't he want to divide Iraq into three separate nations? Didn't he oppose the surge? Didn't he generally oppose the war anway? Well, he's forgotten all that: "I am very optimistic about Iraq," he said. "I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration." He's also taking credit for the upcoming drawdown in troops; yet that was part of a Status of Forces agreement (what the military has with each nation) that was signed while Bush was in office!

Throw the bums out
The latest Real Clear Politics poll: 47 percent approve of Obama, 20 percent of Congress, and only 35 percent think the country is going in the right direction. According to a new NY Times/CBS News poll, less than 10 percent say members of Congress deserve re-election.

Thoughts for Friday

Obama vs. the banks
Obama's proposed "fee" on banks to pay the cost of the TARP program is absurd. Most of the banks that were provided with TARP funds have paid them back with interest. This makes no sense, but points out his liberal belief that banks are bad. '

Why doesn't he charge GM or Chrysler, or AIG, for the money we gave them, yet haven't paid back, and probably won't? (As of Jan 28, 2010: I was informed by a friend who works for GM after I wrote this post that GM is now planning to pay back TARP funds.)

Crony capitalism
An interesting post on crony capitalism by John Stossel. The more I learn about what's going on in government, the more nervous I get.

Liberalism through quotes
"Over time, however, the endless war in Iraq began to play a role in natural selection. Only idiots signed up; only idiots died. Back home, the average I.Q. soared." Who said this? See The Last Decade of Liberalism in 40 Quotes.

Ignoring the Constitution: Our Congress

People are still arguing over the "facts" of who got us into this mess. Most of the blame, at least by the left, has fallen on .... drum roll, please ... you got it: Bush.

But the facts, for those of you who are interested, paint a different picture, one based in reality. David Young, a Constitutional scholar, on his blog On Second Opinion, could not have summarized it better:

The current economic situation is largely the result of two separate problems. The first is government policy that has forced lending institutions to loan money for homes to those who cannot actually repay the loans. Due to the government's policy requiring unsound loans for housing, many people have purchased homes much more expensive than they would otherwise have bought. Others have purchased more than a home, they have engaged in extensive speculation in the housing market, buying up houses, especially in a few parts of the country, to make extensive profits.

The second problem involves some of the largest financial institutions that have engaged in what amounts to gambling or blatant speculation through the medium of credit default swaps, betting on the likelihood of various large
businesses failing. Because of the failure of Freddie and Fanny due to unsound loans caused by equally unsound public policy, the failure of various major financial institutions has become likely, and as a result of a possible string of failures, literally trillions of dollars may be owed to those speculating in credit default swaps.

The insanity of the whole affair is that the people who caused this -- both government and private -- are the ones who are attempting to fix the problem. Does this make sense to you?

Young writes: "Apparently it is simply the result of politicians ignoring the power actually given them in the U.S. Constitution and doing whatever they please whenever they want."

Victor Davis Hanson is also worth reading on these -- indeed, most -- issues. (In fact, if you're not a regular reader of his columns and books, you should become one now.)

We had a 9/11 Commission; we formed the Baker-Hamilton Commission on Iraq (never mind the utility of the conclusions). So let us try a bipartisan investigatory commission on the autumn financial meltdown. Thus far the mainstream media narrative is a reductive “Bush did it.” But let us examine past bundling of subprime mortgages, and derivatives, and who introduced more regulation of banks, who opposed it; who tried to restrain Freddie and Fannie, who fought that tooth and nail, what the SEC did and did not do — and why. Let us collate all the campaign contributions from the failed banks, Madoff, the entire open sewer of politics and high finance, and then let those of the commission, both Democrat and Republican, issue a white paper on when, why, and how it all went down.

In the meantime, let's just keep doing the same thing, and hope for different results.

This are truly insane times.

Do You Regret Your Vote Yet, Part 2?

Headlines from this morning:

Obama Apologizes to Special Olympics for Bowling Joke
President Obama called the chairman of the Special Olympics, Tim Shriver, to say he was sorry for an offhand remark on the "The Tonight Show."

Sen. Dodd's Political Future Cloudy After AIG Bonus Controversy
As head of the banking panel, Sen. Christopher Dodd has become a convenient target for voter anger over the economic crisis.

U.S. Budget Deficit Forecast to Hit $1.8 Trillion This Year
The Congressional Budget Office says the deficit under President Obama's policies would never go below 4 percent of the size of the economy, figures that economists agree are unsustainable.

Iranian Leaders Ignore Obama's Outstretched Hand
Iran's supreme leader snubs President Obama in response to a warm video issued by the White House seeking a "new beginning" with Iran.

$1 trillion deficits seen for next 10 years
President Barack Obama's budget would generate deficits averaging almost $1 trillion a year over the next decade, according to the latest congressional estimates, significantly worse than predicted by the White House just last month.

13 Firms Receiving Federal Bailout Funds Owe $220M in Back Taxes
The House Ways and Means subcommittee on oversight discovered the delinquent taxes in a review of tax records from 23 of the firms.

House Kills Effort to Investigate Lobbyist-Lawmaker Ties
The proposal would have forced the House Ethics Committee to launch a probe into ties between the source and timing of campaign contributions by lobbyists and subsequent legislator requests for special projects or earmarks.

Did Tim Geithner lie about knowing of AIG bonuses?
Treasury Secretary may have known a lot more than he admits about the huge and controversial bonuses paid out by insurance giant AIG to its employees. The New York Times reports that Geithner admitted knowing about bonuses at AIG two weeks ago after claiming this week he only learned about them later.

Big labor ignores a basic freedom of Democracy
...union bosses, egged on by Democrats from Capitol Hill to the White House, display world-class hypocrisy, violate international labor standards, and contradict their own sales pitch as they desperately promote "card-check" legislation to drive secret ballots from union-authorization elections.

Headlines from just this morning, March 20, 2009, the first day of spring. I haven't been collecting them. This is after a little more than 2 years of a Democrat majority in the White House, and some 60 days of the Obmana administration.

Could it get any worse? Seems more like a long winter ahead of us.

Pelosi: Politics before Country

Queen Pelosi just can't help herself. For the second time, when the American people needed a Congress that would act in the interests of the nation as a whole, she fails to get the job done.

Rather than attempting to rally both Democrats and Republicans to fix the financial mess we're in, she plays partisan politics, trying to put all the blame on President Bush.

But the average American knows that it isn't primarily President Bush's fault, if fault has to be put on someone or something. If you read my previous post, you'll see this whole trend started with the Democrats in 1977 and then again several times over when they refused to reform the system. So Nancy's remarks are insulting, not only to her Republican colleagues, but to the Nation as a whole.

...when was the last time someone asked you for $700bn? It is a number that is staggering, but tells us only the costs of the Bush administration's failed economic policies: policies built on budgetary recklessness, on an anything-goes mentality, with no regulation, no supervision, and no discipline in the system...Let us be clear: This is a crisis caused on Wall Street. But it is a crisis that reaches to Main Street in every city and town of the United States. -- Pelosi remarks before Congress, Sept 29, 2008

Frankly, the failure is hers and her fellow Democrats. Her party is at risk in the upcoming elections. Maybe she thinks if the economy is bad enough, it will be good for the Democrats in November.

I can't see how, since she has caused this. Let's see if American voters are as smart as we hope they are.

Financial Crisis? It's Certainly a Mess

I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. -- Thomas Jefferson

Backtrack to 1977 when the Community Reinvestment Act was inacted during Jimmy Carter's term. The purpose of the CRA is to provide credit, including home ownership opportunities to underserved populations and commercial loans to small businesses. Call it Affirmative Action for home and small business loans.

This law was strengthened in 1995 by Congress, signed by Pres. Clinton, and it was then that this so-called sub-prime mortgage baloney really started to take off. It was part of the liberal plan to provide means of home ownership to those who could not qualify -- or afford -- a conventional mortgage. This was a nice idea, but one which could not work. The backbone of the lending industry is that lendees pay back loans to lenders.

You remember conventional mortgages? Up until recently, in order to buy a home, you had to work and save for the down payment, which was normally 20 percent of the cost of the house. Then you had to be able to prove to the bank that you could repay the loan on the remaining 80 percent. This provided immediate equity, which protected not only the bank, but the home owner as well.

Then along comes the "sub-prime" mortgage. Much pressure was put on mortgage lenders to offer these more risky loans. Fannie Mac offered to buy them. The Justice department threatened legal action if lenders didn't comply. In fact, the law firm that Barack Obama worked for at that time sued Citigroup because they weren't making enough sub-prime lonas. So as time went along, more and more of these risky mortgages were made, until it seemed that anyone could get a home loan. People were even getting loans that were more than the home was valued, expecting home prices would always go up. When will anyone learn that all things that go up, eventually come down?

In 1999, the New York Times observed that eventually the bill would come due because of these loans. How prophetic, even for this paper, which would be expected to fully support a liberal cause.

In 2001, after taking office, President Bush warned Congress to do something about this growing problem, and in 2003 upgraded his warning that the problem could create systemic problems, which means it could affect the entire financial system. Legislation introduced was blocked. Later, in February 2005, Alan Greenspan warned of a collapse. But Democrats, such as Barney Franks, said Fannie Mae should do even more to get low-income people into home ownership.

In 2006, Sen. John McCain co-sponsored a bill to increase regulatory measures over government-back mortgages. The bill passed the Senate (with all Democrats voting against), but never made it off the House floor. See the Fox News report below for a summary.



Now it's 2008. Back in June, we already coughed up $300 billion on this mess.

Now, the same people -- people like Chris Dodd and Barney Franks -- who helped created the problem, want the American taxpayer to bail out these financial institutions that are holding all this bad debt. These American taxpayers are the ones who are working, paying their mortgages, and trying to save for their futures. Now we should be expected to bail out not only the lending institutions, but the homeowners also.

I find it ironic that Dodd and his ilk will hold Congressional hearings to fix blame for this. But he should be a witness, not an investigator.

It just may be that the government -- us -- will have to do something drastic, like buy up all these bad mortgages. Bush says we'll get our money back. But don't count on it. Government has a bad track-record.

Politicians -- who pander for votes -- say this is a good plan. Several large banks will be saved from disaster, and a lot of homeowners who can't pay the bill will get bailed out. In the meantime, those of us who currently pay the bills (the top 50 percent of wage earners pay 95 percent of all income tax) will end up paying even more.

But there are now some 200 economists who say the plan is deeply flawed.

No matter which way it goes, one thing remains. Most of our problems have started with the Federal government meddling in free markets. Yes, there should be oversight against abuse. But when government starts telling free markets how to behave, disaster is around the corner. This has been proven over and over, yet our government does it over and over.

When will the madness stop?

Ethanol Hurts Worse Than It Helps

I recently noticed a drop in my gas mileage. I'm always very aware of what my gas mileage is all the time, and having an on-board computer to monitor it helps. A drop in gas mileage can indicate a problem with your vehicle before anything else, in some cases.

I drive Buick LeSabre, just for reference here. Last summer on a road trip to Michigan, I averaged 34 mpg. In March, on a trip down to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, I got 35 mpg, probably because I wasn't using the air conditioner.

Recently, however, I've noticed my gas mileage dropping. I took it in for an oil change, air filter, tire pressures, etc, but not much changed. Only then did I realize that for the past several weeks I've been using gasoline that contains 10 percent ethanol. My mileage on the highway is down about 4 mpg. So I then examined my wife's truck, a Dodge RAM 1500 with a big hemi V8, and her mileage is down too, from about 15.8 to 14.5 mpg average.

So an 8 to 11 percent drop in gas mileage is not helping, is it? I guess inflating our tires for a 3 percent gain is a moot point now.

For those of you who support ethanol use as a replacement for gasoline, consider what the Houston Chronicle says about it, and then do your own independent research. I think you'll come to the same conclusion.

As for lessening dependence on foreign oil and cleaning the air, ethanol does little for either. It takes almost as much energy from power plants, diesel fuel and fertilizer to grow the corn, refine it and distribute it to gasoline blenders as ethanol gives out when it is burned. The fertilizer runoff creates a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. If the electricity used to refine the corn comes from a coal-fired plant, ethanol hikes pollution and carbon emissions.

Why is ethanol so popular with politicians, including Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama? (Sen. John McCain opposes ethanol subsidies.) Presidential candidates want to win the Iowa caucuses. In Congress, like-minded farm-state legislators represent a significant voting block.

Perhaps one day the United States will have a rational policy on energy and environmental protection. But not before it ends the destructive and disruptive rules designed to please farmers and corn refiners regardless of the consequences to the rest of the world.

The forced-use of ethanol has been one of the worst edicts from our government in recent memory, and is just another example of how government meddling hurts us.

Pelosi to Back Down? Don't Bet On It

The Hill, and other media outlets, reported this morning that Pelosi may just back down from her no-drilling, no-where, no-how policy.

Republicans, reacting to high gas prices, have demanded a vote on additional oil exploration in the Outer Continental Shelf, where drilling is currently blocked by a moratorium. Until now, Pelosi (D-Calif.) has resisted the idea as a “hoax.” But in an interview on CNN’s Larry King Live, she indicated that she was open to a vote.

“They have this thing that says drill offshore in the protected areas,” Pelosi said. “We can do that. We can have a vote on that.”

She indicated such a vote would have to be part of a larger package that included other policies, like releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which she said could bring down prices in a matter of days.

“But it has to be part of something that says we want to bring immediate relief to the public and is not just a hoax on them,” Pelosi continued.

She even indicated that she might support a package that includes drilling. She said her decision on whether to support such legislation would depend on how the policies are packaged.

“It’s not excluded, let’s put it that way,” Pelosi said.

But don't get too excited, partner. While Pelosi is on Larry King (does anyone watch Larry King anymore?) her staff is hard at work to prevent her from flip-flopping.

The last sentence in the story:

"But her aides later released a statement saying she was not announcing a change in her stance on a drilling vote."

So it's a wait and see, I guess.

In the meantime, Rep. Steny Hoyer and some other liberals are making a meaningless stink about this statement that House Minority Leader John Boehner made in an interview with Politico:

"She's gonna bring us back and not deal with it? The American people are gonna hang her," Boehner said. When pressed further, Boehner said it would "be fine, as long as we get a vote on our bill."

Hoyer objected to the implied violence.

There was no violence implied. He meant in his interview that "the voters will make her pay in November."

It's funny when a liberal or Democrat says something or does something (like Edwards), the media play it down, make it seem ok (this is called cultural relativism). But if a conservative or Republican says something...then OMG, the sky is falling. How dare those evil conservatives say something like that. Double standard? You bet. Are liberals all about freedom of speech? You bet. But only if you agree with them. Otherwise, shut up.

What I find immensely interesting in the whole affair is how one person, in a republic such as ours, can hold up a policy vote on an important issue such as energy. These are the same folks who used to filibuster Bush's court nominations.

It's kind of like children who don't get their own way. They stomp out of the room.

And some people call George Bush a tryant. Most likely those folks are admiring Pelosi. That is truly deranged.

For a couple of other interesting posts on this whole energy mess, see Combatting Myths About Offshore Drilling and Top 10 Energy Questions For Speaker Pelosi.

So Much For Civility

Barack Obama promised a different kind of campaign, a campaign of civility.

Nancy Pelosi promised a different kind of Congress, a Congress of civility.

We have neither. Pelosi is off selling books, after turning off the lights on Capitol Hill. She refuses a debate on the House floor over energy. Refuses to allow an up-or-down vote, probably because she knows she'll lose. While 80 percent of the American voters (at least thosed polled) think we should do more domestic drilling, as part of a more comprehensive program, she refuses to allow it.

Barack is not delivering a new or different kind of politics. It's the same ol' thing: pandering for votes, adjusting position based on polls, a Clintonesque rewriting of history to suit his purpose. And now that he's come out and called Republicans "liars" and "ignorant" we know what his definiton of civility is in his mind.

And a day doesn't go buy I don't read some liberal blogger or commentor using the term "neocon" as white bigots used to use the N-word decades ago (or rappers still do). Neocon has become the degratory putdown by liberals, without even understanding where the term, or concept, came from. As once said, "a neoconservative is a liberal with a good dose of reality." So go ahead, put us down. Make our day. You only prove your own ignorance.

The mindset of these people: "If only we, the smart, sophisticated and intelligent people are in charge, we will tell you how you should live your lives, because we know best." This is basic socialism 101. The main difference between liberal and conversative these days is that liberals want more government intervention in our lives, conservatives want less.

You make the choice. But remember, you'll have to live with it. Once government gets its claws stuck in your business, you'll never shake it off.

Whose Failed Policies?

While out promoting her new book, rather than attending to the business of the American people, Nancy Pelosi is defending her stance on energy policy.

"I will not have this debate trivialized by their excuse for their failed policy," Pelosi said. “When you win the election, you win the majority, and what is the power of the speaker? To set the agenda, the power of recognition, and I am not giving the gavel away to anyone.”

What debate? She won't allow it on the House floor. And whose failed policies?

"She's got time to go out and promote her new book tour and her new book, but she doesn't have time to schedule a vote on the floor of the House and let the American people have their will expressed?" Rep. John Boehner told FOX News.

"For 25 years, Democrats have blocked more American-made oil and gas. That's why we're in the predicament we're in," said Boehner, R-Ohio. Voters want Congress "to vote on more American made oil and gas. We want to do that. She, Harry Reid, Barack Obama are standing in the way."

House and Senate Democrats are using their control of Congress to avoid voting on opening up the Outer Continental Shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to oil exploration, which they say is unnecessary because oil companies already have leases to millions of acres of federal land. Because of the deadlock, Democratic energy priorities have stalled, too.

Pelosi countered the criticism by issuing a statement that listed a series of editorials from newspaper boards critical of the GOP plan to allow more offshore oil drilling.

"American families and businesses are struggling with skyrocketing gas prices at the pump, but President Bush and his Republican allies in Congress continue to stand in the way of real relief," Pelosi said in the statement. "Instead, the Bush-Cheney policy, an energy plan crafted by two oilmen in the White House, revolves around the best interests of Big Oil – from protecting tax breaks to expanding domestic oil and gas drilling."

David Rogers at the Politico newspaper reports that Pelosi, who initially promised an open debate, has now resorted to what he calls hard-nosed parliamentary devices to block any Republican proposals on offshore oil and gas exploration.

Rogers also calls Pelosi "Nancy the Navigator" because she says, "I have always loved longitude. I love latitude; it's in the stars. But longitude, it's about time... time and clocks and all the rest of that have always been a fascination for me."

This is beyond belief. Even liberals (I assume posters at Huffington Post are liberal) are getting fed up with this Do-Nothing Congress.

In response to Robert Borosage's latest post, where he attempts to blame everything on Republicans, some of the resposes are telling.

Chris: "Wow it is funny how leftiest during the republican control of congress encouraged obstructionist. But now it is bad? Why is that exactly?"

People Proffessor: "Government cannot do everything. And it shouldn't do everything as enumerated in that wonderful document known as OUR Constitution."

PATina: "The Democrats have wasted the last 8 years... DOING NOTHING. There was the voter disenfranchising problems of 2000 and 2004... they should have come up w/ concrete plans to introduce legislation to improve (or change) the way we vote in this country. But they did nothing and then In 2008... it was the DEMS that were accused of disenfranchising voters in FL and MI. Pathetic."

In another reponse to Borosage's post, even some stauch Democrats are finally getting angry:

I heard Nancy on Jon Stewart blaming the lack of progress on GOP obstruction, but let's face it Nancy, you got the ball rolling (or stopped it from rolling) with "Impeachment is off the table" - why didn't you at least LOOK like you were going to changing the course of disaster the GOP had put us on, and said nothing at all or at least "Impeachment is worth looking at".

Nancy and those who rolled over with her right after the elections of 2006 don't deserve to be elected again.

Seems to me that we are getting closer and closer to a real American revolution, in which the majority of Americans, both conservative and liberal, are getting fed up.

I say it's about time.

Queen Pelosi to Use Gavel to Save the World While She Destroys U.S.

Rep. (D-CA) Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, has told Politico that she’s standing in the way on a drilling vote because she’s determined to use the speaker’s gavel to “save the planet.”

What gives her the right to ignore the will of the people to further her own personal agenda? The House of Representatives is the peoples house, as designed by the founders and specified in the Constitution.

She does not have this right while the average American suffers under higher energy prices, and rising prices in general caused by higher energy prices. Because of her actions, hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their jobs, and other low-income families can barely make it.

She promised a new kind of leadership in the House. But we never knew this would lead to her coronation as Queen of the House, instead of Speaker. This is the worst Congress the U.S. has ever seen.

She needs to step down immediately.

Must Reads for the Day

It should be quite evident by now that the Democrats, and liberals in general, are not about freedom of expression, democracy or letting votes dictate the policy of this government or the will of the people. They are about power. They want to run the country as they see fit, because they are, after all, smarter and better than the rest of us. If you don't believe this, start with the first story below, an editorial in the usually left-leaning Washington Post.

No Drilling, No Vote
Speaker Pelosi won't let the House debate the merits of offshore drilling.WHY NOT have a vote on offshore drilling? There's a serious debate to be had over whether Congress should lift the ban on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf that has been in place since 1981. Unfortunately, you won't be hearing it in the House of Representatives -- certainly, you won't find lawmakers voting on it -- anytime soon.

Barack Obama Secretly Runs Senate Banking Committee!
Here’s our pal Barack Obama, saying that the Senate Banking Committee — “which is my committee,” he says — passed some bill about something. Problem is, he’s not actually on the Senate Banking Committee at all. Maybe he meant to say he’s on the SENATE LIARS COMMITTEE where he passed a bill about MAKING SHIT UP. This is significantly more important than John McCain saying the Surge caused things that happened before the Surge.

A Look Back: What Democrats Were Saying About The Surge
The enormous improvement in Iraq's security situation caused by the surge has been so undeniable that even the mainstream press has started alternating between ignoring Iraq completely and acknowledging, albeit reluctantly, that the surge has put victory within reach in Iraq.

Change They Can Believe In
Barack Obama’s recent global tour may have been a media sensation abroad, but back home it was a punch line. “There was a huge reception for Barack Obama in the Middle East this past weekend,” quipped Jay Leno. “People were screaming, chasing him, hanging on his every word — and that was just the U.S. press corps.”

The Surge, the Awakening, the Democrats and Rewriting History
McCain wants to start the surge too early, Wesley Clark gets his facts wrong and also claims the Saudis had a hand in calming the violence - the surge has become a bit of a political football in this not yet official presidential contest.

Summer Madness
So an exasperated Sen. Barbara Boxer screams that the farm-belt senators better support her regional selfishness in opposing California off-shore drilling against the national interest, in the same manner she went along with the ethanol boondoggle. Odd that she was so brazen in her confessional.

The liberal mind

In a letter to the editor for the TCPalm, a reader speaks her opinion on the Fairness Doctrine, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi supports. This bill, if passed, would required radio stations to provide the same amount of time to a liberal as to conservatives such as Rush, et al, get to air their shows.

The Fairness Doctrine is not needed. The market-place will provide. Both sides of the political spectrum has what they need to get their views heard. This would probably put some to many radio stations out of business. This is the motivation behind Pelosi's stance: silence any opposition. This is quite clear to anyone who thinks clearly.

Beside the point (which is my point, not the letter writer above), why do we need government to tell us what we need to put on the air?

In reponse to this letter writer, the liberals went balistic. Listen to how they make their case (you should first read the letter above, so you can see the tone in which is was written).

"hey donna to begin with i consider rush to be a comedian, drug abuser who has nothing to do but feed his sheep pure stupidity and as sheep does you follow him, oreilly (a real idiot) hannity another shepherd of the non thinking flock"

How is the 'fairness doctrine" any different than 'fair and balanced" ? One can listen to whomever they want and believe whatever they want . No one is stopping them . If one can not tell the difference between facts and fiction pretty much explains why they listen to Rush, Sean and Bill it enforces their intollerent beliefs. Right wingers have always been easy targets for the hate mongers or groups Weather it was Hitler, Grobbels, Joe McCarthy. S. Agnew, N. Gingrich, Rush, Sean or Bill. You won't find any right wingers in Green Peace or the Peace Corp , but you will however find them in the KKK or American Nazi party .It was liberals who pushed civil rights that why right wingers became REPUBLICANS . Intollerance , this is what appeals to right wingers. REMEMBER JESUS CHRIST WAS A BLEEDING HEART LIBERAL. A TRUE CHRISTIAN believes in LIBERAL PRINCIPALS.

Of course, conservatives had their say as well:

First of all many many republicans helped with the civil rights movement, of course left wing nuts like yourself will never admit to that. Secondly,you mention how you will see right wingers in groups that promote hate but you forgot to mention that there are a lot of liberals that also promote hate and many liberals that promote the use of force to get their agenda pushed forward.Look at the terrorrist group FALN from Puerto Rico,they set off bombs here in our country.The Clintons,the liberals that they are commutted the sentences of 19 convicted members of the group.Look at Obama,not only a liberal but a socialist.He belonged to a church that preached hatred towards whites.He attended the church for twenty years.Take a look at Rep Charle Rangel another liberal.He has supported former members of the black panters,a group that went around shooting police officers in the 60,s and 70's.As you can see there are plenty of low lifes on both sides of the aisle.Thirdly,you stated "if one can not tell the difference between fact and fiction it pretty much explains why the listen to Rush,Sean and Bill it enforces their intollerent beliefs.On the other hand if people like yourself who can't tell the difference between fact and fiction is explains why you watch CNN,NBC or CBS.You most likely think that everything Colmes says on Hannity and Colmes is 100 percent correct.Liberals like yourself also have two sets of standards.Look at Obama.Obama attends a church of hate for twenty years,a church that preached hatred towards whites.Obama never objected to any of it.If McCain had attended a church that preached hatred towards blacks or any other ethnic group you and the rest of the liberals would be screaming that he is a racist and the he should be thrown out of the race.Your willinhg to overlook what Obama did because he is a ultra liberal.Now onto the so called fairness doctrine.The fact is the liberals want this pushed thru because conservative talk radio is killing the liberal shows in the ratings and they want to stop that.Like you stated "one can listen to whomever they want and believe what they want".So in other words we do not need this legislation pushed thru if you do not want to listen to conservative talk radio all you have to do is switch stations but the fact is liberals know that more people listen to conservative radio and watch conservative tv than liberal radio and tv and they do not like that.

Besides the facts, the tone of the writing is so much different for a conservative as opposed to the liberals.

A New Kind of Leadership

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi promised a new kind of leadership in the House of Representatives. Well, we got it.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid continue to block any legislation that would increase our domestic oil and gas exploration and production. As WorldNetDaily comments:

Speaker Pelosi is making similar use of her considerable power, denying access to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives for any proposal that would loosen the restrictions on expanded drilling in America. In committees, she has directed that meetings be recessed or canceled when necessary to prevent elected representatives from offering of any pro-drilling amendments.

The appropriations process has been shut down to avoid amendments. It's hard to believe, but this Congress wants to avoid energy votes more than it wants to spend money.

Similar tactics are being applied in the Senate, along with a refusal to delay its August recess to consider energy legislation. The political sensitivity is greater in the House, however, because every one of its members must face the voters this fall, whereas only one-third of the senators will.

Pennlive.com calls Pelosi's tactics as "one person using her power to usurp the democratic process because of personal ideology." And liberals have the gall to call Bush a tyrant.

How long will this go on?

We're in trouble. And our government has been failing us for more than 50 years.

Are we running out of oil, as "peak oil" advocates would have us believe? Or do we not need to worry about it?

In December 2007, Brazil discovered billions in its Tupi field. In April 2008, Brazil discovered that its Carioca offshore oil field may hold up to 33 billion barrels. China last year made 10 major new energy discoveries.

Most estimates place the U.S. reserves (oil that we haven't pumped yet, but know is there) are about 30 billion barrels. This doesn't include some of the following:

In 2006 Chevron, Devon Energy and Norway's Statoil discovered a field with 15 billion barrels in the Gulf of Mexico. Other offshore sources hold as much as 10 billion barrels. The 2,000-acre site in ANWR has up to 16 billion barrels. The Bakken oil basin, stretching from North Dakota and Montana into Canada, has about 4 billion barrels. Colorado and Utah are estimated to contain as much as 1.2 trillion barrels of oil trapped in shale below the ground.

A 2005 U.S. Geological Survey reported that there remain some 3 trillion barrels worldwide yet to be pumped.

The numbers are so big that it's hard to put your mind around. So let's do that.

Let's say, for a moment, that the figure of 30 billion barrels of oil left in the U.S. is correct.

How long would that last if we used it all for our consumption of 20 million barrels a day?

We've got just over 4 years of oil left. Wow. We'd better get our bicyles out. I'll invest in some horses for sure.

Ignoring the shale oil for a moment, there is another estimated 45 billion barrels yet to be tapped in the U.S. That would add another 6.16 years. So we have just a little more than 10 years if we used all of our own oil.

If we just use our own oil to replace imports (about 14 million barrels a day), we get just over 14 years before we run out.

Looks pretty bleak, huh?

Add the 1.2 trillion in shale oil, and we get a little breather. This would last us 164 years if we used it for all of our needs, and 235 years to replace our imports. Of course, we would not be importing after a century, because the rest of the world will have run out.

At the current consumption rate of 80 million barrels per day worldwide, we have 104 years before everyone runs out.

So what is the solution to our energy needs? Obviously, we need oil now. So we better get busy, because the downside to not using our own resources is this: every day we send (at today's price of $126 per barrel) some $1.7 billion to other countries, most of who are not very friendly to us. Better to keep those dollars at home, don't you think?

We certainly need to find some viable alternatives. So we better get to work. Nuclear energy, natural gas, hydrogen power, solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal are all sources to tap. Continued research into fusion is absolutely necessary.

We do not have to ride horses again. But a sane, well-though-out, and continuous energy program is needed. Our government has been failing us for more than 40 years. How long will we let this go on?

Pelosi: Drilling Issue is an 'Absolute Hoax'

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Speaker of the House, is stuck in the "we can't drill our way out of this problem." She recently told The Hill newspaper that "this call for drilling in areas that are protected is a hoax, it's an absolute hoax on the part of the Republicans and this administration."

She doesn't care about the price of gasoline. Worth some $50 million, she is not hurting at the gasoline pump. In fact, she probably likes gasoline at $4. It means we'll use less, which will help the battle on global warming (a recent study suggests that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will increase crop yields, but I digress once again).

Even if new drilling only reduced the price of gasoline by a few cents, at least my dollars would be buying American oil, not Saudi, Iranian, Nigerian, Venezuelan, etc. Instead of funding rogue regimes, we would be funding our own economy.

How can our Speaker of the House and many other democrats deny us that?

She is intent on preventing votes on opening more areas to offshore drilling despite the stirring of a revolt by rank-and-file Democrats after months of concerted effort by House Republicans. In other words, she has ordained herself Queen of America, and nothing gets voted on without her O.K. Even George Bush doesn't have that kind of power.

We send our representatives to Congress to vote on issues. But not in Pelosi's House, where she, and she alone calls the shots. No wonder the approval rating for Congress is only 9 percent, according to some polls (and at the most, 18 percent).

Even Sen. Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, who is normally just as liberal as Pelosi, is twisting, saying that "I'm not knee-jerk-opposed to anything." Of course, we won't include his "The War is Lost" mentality of recent past.

The Democrat solution is more regulation (always the mantra of the left) of oil futures traders, more hearings and grilling of oil executives, and yet surprisingly a couple of good ideas: the Bureau of Land Management should speed up the leasing of approved areas, ban the export of American oil, and urge the completion of the Alaskan oil and gas pipelines.

But no more drilling or using our own resources. We'll just ask the Saudis nicely to provide us more, and I'm sure they will.

How naive. To solve the current energy "crisis" will take a multi-front strategy, and getting more of our own resources is one part of the attack. We have enough to supply our own needs, if only the Democrats had a brain enough to let us.

Sue OPEC? Congress Should Sue Itself

Michael Cembalest is chief investment officer of JPMorgan Private Bank. Forbes reprinted an exerpt from one of his bi-weekly "Eye on the Market" e-mails in which he states that instead of Congress suing OPEC, it should sue itself.

As the U.S. endures an energy crisis and imports more than 60% of its energy needs, the House of Representatives and the Senate have decided to take action. They overwhelmingly voted to modify the Sherman Antitrust Act and allow OPEC to be sued in U.S. courts for running a cartel. The Senate, however, is currently reconsidering the bill because it was shelved even after the body approved it last year. The mind reels.

Over the last 30 years, elected U.S. officials blocked nuclear build-out and spent fuel storage construction; impeded the construction of oil refineries; refrained from passing meaningful alternative energy legislation; imposed an import tax on cheaper Brazilian ethanol; prevented offshore drilling in Alaska, California and Florida; delayed tighter auto fuel-efficiency standards for 30 years; blocked the construction of liquefied natural gas ports; killed wind farms in their own backyards (and back bays); and neglected opportunities for public-private sector partnerships on energy research and development.

Congress got it wrong; it should sue itself instead.

It's an interesting read, and you can find it here.

Also, Ed Wallace had an interesting commentary on oil in Business Week.

New No-Energy Energy Bills

In case you missed it, last week Congress brought to the House floor two more "energy" bills in an attempt, as Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) put it, "to push through poorly-drafted and politically-motivated legislation before the 4th of July..."

I repeat the part of his e-mail update that I received from him on June 27:

This week the price of oil reached a record high of over $140 a barrel. Instead of providing real energy solutions to our nation’s very real energy crisis, this week Congress brought to the House floor two more “no-energy” bills in an attempt to push through poorly-drafted and politically-motivated legislation before the 4th of July District Work Period.

Unfortunately, both bills fail to address the real problem: a lack of supply. Instead, the Democrat Majority has chosen a two-prong approach: blame the free-market system and punish the companies that want to develop more American energy resources.

The first bill scapegoats the futures market, blaming it for higher gas prices. The Energy Markets Emergency Act attempts to over-regulate energy futures – an important price-discovery and risk management tool for businesses. This bill is a sham because it simply restates current law. The “speculators” the Majority attempts to blame for the run-up in oil prices are actually traders who buy and sell contracts to lock in goods at a future price and allow commodity consumers to hedge against possible market volatility.

The futures market is critical to our economy because it stabilizes prices and adds liquidity to the market – but it has nothing to do with the availability of oil in the marketplace. Punishing businesses and investors will not add one additional barrel of crude or BTUs of natural gas to our supply – but increasing our production of American energy certainly will.

The second bill – the Responsible Federal Oil and Gas Lease Act, also known as the “Use-It-or-Lose-It” bill – provides a good sound-bite for the Majority as they rail against oil companies on the House floor, but it actually discourages domestic production by increasing federal regulation on energy-producing companies. Oil and gas producers are already required to surrender their leases if they do not produce after resources are discovered. This bill would add additional timelines that ignore the complexity of the discovery process.

The Majority in Congress would also like American consumers to believe that oil companies lease land so that they can sit on it idly without producing to keep supply low and prices high. This is simply not the case. It is extremely costly and time consuming to lease land, get permits, and conduct geological exploration and discovery exercises. It makes no sense that these companies would jump through all these hurdles just so they could sit on the land and not produce – especially with prices at all-time highs.

Again, the Majority has fallen back on its worn-out strategy of blaming “Big Oil” for the high cost of gas, but they fail to acknowledge who owns “Big Oil”—mostly middle class Americans who have invested in mutual funds, stocks, and pensions. The Majority’s answer to the problem is simple: increase regulation and increase government interference in private sector business operations.

I strongly oppose these no-energy political games that bring meaningless legislation to the House floor but do nothing to lower the price of energy for American consumers. Real Americans are suffering, and the time for games is over—we need to increase the production of American energy now.