Jim Dandy: I would think in some regards Israel has turned into a pawn of sorts.. They couldn't keep up the military without help.

June 14, 2010
Obama will use Oval Office speech to politicize the Gulf oil disaster
Bill Weckesser
Has the Obama administration willfully been scuttling clean up efforts in the Gulf so that the oil could make its way to shore and onto the beaches and birds for maximum political leverage? Now Politico is reporting that the President will use his oval office address for a full court, no hold-bars, assault on the oil and energy industries. Mike Allen writes in http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0610/38488.html

That would answer the question as to why the administration waited so long and why they held back on needed efforts to stop the disaster before it got worse.

Make room under the bus for Eric Holder
Clarice Feldman
One of my favorite national security mavens, Gabriel Schoenfeld, says in the Weekly Standard that Attorney General Eric Holder's likely to be thrown under the Obama bus. I can't find a thing wrong with that prediction:

Eric Holder has been a disastrous attorney general. "Classic 101 Boobery" was how one Democratic operative memorably called his decision, now on hold, to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian court in lower Manhattan. Other blunders have piled up and the White House has been repeatedly embarrassed by his string of ill-considered decisions and gaffes. With the midterm elections approaching, it would not be surprising if Holder soon finds himself under the Obama bus, lying next to former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair.

(V): Oil reaps more rewards than Jaffa oranges.Without the support of the USA, Israel would have been obliterated just for existing.I'm pretty sure Israel would prefer to live peacefully, with no threats to their right to exist.

Artful Dodger: I don't think Obama wants to me noted as Nixon and Raygun have been for being lackeys of the private sector. With respect.. the USA has the potential of a great deal of green energy. It'd be a shame to waste those renewable resources.

And for the right wing to take this disaster and turn it into a point scorer is disgusting.

(V):   The US may have the resources for "Green Energy" but the technology just isn't there.  There is likely potential, but the actual technology to produce the vast quantities of energy needed just isn't possible technologically at this point.  One oil well can supply far more than a multitude of green energy sources.  It's not my opinion on the matter, it's just the facts we are currently facing.  There is no possible way to replace fossel fuels with green energy.  We are still in the very early stages of discovery.  Yes we have found green energy sources, but the output is limited.  And in the meanwhile, other countries around the world will continue to produce oil based products and unless the US does too, it will be at the mercy of others.  Exploring green energy sources is one thing.  But we cannot talk ahead of the game.  We are not at a point where green energy can sustain people's energy needs on larger scales.  In theory perhaps, but in practice, no.

Artful Dodger: I think you'll find we are in the 21st and although green cannot produce all the energy it can stop our dependence on oil. The tech is such that one can make enough power from solar and wind to be able to sell back to the grid.

The USA is already at the mercy of others oil wise. It has been for decades and unless the American people are willing to pay a big hike in oil prices will stay so.

"Exploring green energy sources is one thing. But we cannot talk ahead of the game. "

The games is that we can now burn 90%+ of landfill rubbish and turn it into power, wind farms, wave farms, solar heating and electric, old oil from fast food joints turned into bio fuel.......

.. if it wasn't for green technology power wise, you'd not had the A-bomb in 1945.

The USA should be exploiting their vast reserves of natural gas, he has a point.

Whoever gets the jump in "green energy" will be the leader of the next century.A whole economy and workforce would be energized by becoming the leader in this area.

(V): This is not true. It can potentially stop it but that's theory. In practice, it can't because as I said, we don't currently have the adequate technology.

Jim Dandy: I agree that we should get the jump on green energy. But it's only a promise at this moment in time and it may turn out to just be a pipe dream.

Artful Dodger: It's no longer a theory. The tech to replace petrol has been found and is in development. A nanotech battery.

You should read the news!!

(V): Of course I never said it was "just a theory." That part you made up. I said the technology isn't adequate. It can't produce the needed energy to complete with fossil fuels. And I said that we've a long way to go before we get to that place.

You see, I read the news and what I've said is what has been in the news. It's not that green energy doesn't offer promises. Perhaps it does. But at this moment in time, the technology IS NOT THERE. It's like a battery vrs nuclear energy. Sure the battery can run small things. But it cannot even begin to address the huge energy needs of a single city. A house? Yeah. People had tons of equiptment and get their energy from the sun. But they live in Arizona. Try that here. In many parts of the world the sunshine is not sufficient to power much of anything.

June 17, 2010
Charity begins at home
Moshe Dann
President Obama has announced that he intends to give $400 million more to the Palestinian Authority and Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip without conditions, or oversight.

This is in addition to $900 million America pledged for Gaza and the PA in March, 2009.

President Obama said: "...the United States -- which is already the biggest humanitarian aid donor in Gaza -- is going to be announcing an additional $400 million in assistance for housing, school construction, business development -- not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank ... the status quo with respect to Gaza [is] unsustainable, the status quo with respect to the Middle East is unsustainable. It is time for us to go ahead and move forward on a two-state solution..."

Yet, Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, has been held in Gaza for four years without even minimal human rights, even a visit from the Red Cross. And Hamas terrorists, who are in control of Gaza, continue to attack Israel.

And a few days ago, terrorists connected to Fatah, the ruling party in the PA, murdered a policeman and wounded two others. PA policemen have been involved in other murders of Jews traveling on roads in Judea and Samaria.

Artful Dodger: oh he will probably take it out of the 30billion he is asking/getting/or has been offered from BP....

Artful Dodger: The technology is now that you do not need high levels of sunlight to make solar power, even at the current tech levels micro generation can lead with small windmills to enable the average joe to be able to sell electric to the grid.

... The new tech coming out is able to use every inch of a building including windows (with windows both internal and external light) for solar electric production.

It's a myth that you need bright sunlight. Wind and wave farms are now operational in the UK..... sunshine is not the only free energy available.

... The new batteries coming in R&D ..... powerful enough to replace and give the range of a combustion engine.

Maybe it's just the BBC provide more coverage then in this news area.

Bernice: Obama sat on his hands for nearly 60 days. I think he let this disaster get as bad as it could get so he could play the tough guy and then pass some of his controversial ideas.

Artful Dodger: This kinda reminds me of why I don't like someone buying me dinner.You feel inhibited from ordering what might be the best, but most pricey items on the menu,and can't really complain if you don't enjoy the meal.........Obama has traded the right to call the shots for BP paying the tab on the fixit job and clean up, no matter how lousy a job they do.

Jim Dandy: Obama shirked his responsibility early on in this whole mess. There were things he could do but his administration sat on their hands. That part is clear. Now he's acting (playing politics) all though. Even Chris Matthews is critical of him.

Artful Dodger: How is he playing politics?

Artful Dodger: OMG... If BP had not corners then there would be NO accident. You cannot blame Obama for BP trying to do the job on the cheap. BP ignored safety warnings from their own engineers, they ignored safety warnings from their contractors.

(V): There was PLENTY Obama could have done AFTER the spill but he did NOTHING. I'll list them later. I'll also get specific on Jim's question.

Artful Dodger: You are still ignoting the point that BP caused the accident by ignoring safety advice by their experts

... this is not a mistake by government but by a private sector company who cut costs. Is there documentation that Obama told them to cut costs... no.

Tuesday: I don't get parts of the mess over that event.. over here if there is a natural disaster then county (state to you guys) lines vanish.

(V): I'm not ignoring that fact. I've know BP caused the accident through negligence from the start. But Obama did nothing in the first 60 days.

Artful Dodger: I didn't know you bugged the Oval office!!

The inventor of a low-cost solar cell that could be used to build electricity generating windows has been awarded this year's Millennium Technology Prize. Professor Michael Gratzel of the Lausanne Federal Technology Institute received the €800,000 (£660,000) prize at a ceremony in Helsinki.

Professor Gratzel's innovation mimics the way plants turn light into energy. Two British inventors also won prizes of €150,000 (£124,000) each.

..... Explaining his inspiration, he said: "I was always intrigued by the way plants capture sunlight and turn it into fuels like sugar. "Natural photosynthesis was the inspiration, and our solar cell is the only one that mimics the natural photosynthetic process."

Gratzel cells rely on nanotechnology to produce power from sunlight. "We are using nanocrystal films in which the particles are so small, they don't scatter light," said Professor Gratzel.

"You can imagine using those cells as electricity producing windows. "What's very exciting is that you collect light from all sides, so can capture electricity from the inside as well as the outside. "You could think that the glass of all high-rises in New York would be electricity generating panels," he said.

Gratzel cells have recently been launched in consumer products, including as battery charging backpacks, and Professor Gratzel said that the €800,000 prize would benefit his research and go back into science.

(V): It's a step but as I correctly pointed out, we're not there yet. We've a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG way to go. A very long way.

Jim Dandy: The Obama administration's response to the oil spill was slow. Even when he did begin to get involved, the efforts of the feds has been disorganized and inefficient. The politics he's playing has to do with the clean up and NOT the spill. It's OUR shores and OUR fishing waters and OUR recreational waters that are affected. So it's up the US (as in the Federal Government) to be sure things are being done aggressively to contain this disaster.

Obama and company did NOT do that. They are just now taking aggressive action. And at every opportunity, Obama is vilifying BP. That is not to say BP isn't at fault here. I think they clearly are. But grandstanding and making promises to kick someone's ass is a political move and not a move of a leader trying to offer viable solutions.

Obama is moving toward passage of some of his energy policies and he's doing so on the back of this oil spill. There is speculation that he and his administration have deliberately allowed the spill to get worse so that it would yield more political advantage. I think this is true. The evidence of this is Obama's current pressure on legislators to pass some of his more controversial legislation.

Obama has never been a fan of huge oil companies. And clearly he's using this crisis to his political advantage. I'm not saying Republicans don't do the same. They do. But Obama is president now and he's the man in charge so ultimately he's the only one that matters at the moment.

From his speech:

We've approved the construction of new barrier islands in Louisiana to try and stop the oil before it reaches the shore."

Of course Louisiana's governor has been asking for those islands and berms for two months not and FINALLY Obama approves. Now that's quick. Keep in mind, they've not been built yet but they are approved.

What was Obama waiting for? Oh yeah, for things to get worse.

Real leadership gets things done. Obama is over his head. We are seeing the Peter Principle at work here.

Obama is receiving bipartisan criticism for using this oil spill for political means. He's attempting to use the spill as a way to revive his energy regulation bill. That bill has been tabled since last year. Clearly the "cap-and-trade" package does absolutely nothing in stopping the leak or aiding in the cleanup. But Obama never met a crisis that he's not willing to exploit politically.

Artful Dodger: Poor Obama, he can't win from losing.I am pretty confident that if he had not expressed the very real frustration of the nation by saying he wanted to find out "who's ass to kick" he would be denounced by the right for being soft on big oil.

Jim Dandy: People want solutions not speeches. Where was he at the beginning of this oil spill? He was not dealing with it. His administration was basically ignoring it. It took Obama 2 months to approve Jindal's requests. That's playing politics.

Obama is the first President to use foul language when addressing the public. Not very Presidential.

And why are many on the left talking about buyers remorse? Clearly, Obama's honeymoon is over. More and more people are disappointed with his policies and lack of leadership.

Wait until they see their taxes go up. Another promise broken. We will all see that. No, Obama didn't "raise" our taxes. He authored policies that will increase taxes through new regulations/laws and changes.

When the Bush tax cuts expire, we will all see an increase. Obama could extend the cuts but he won't. As we head into November we will see more and more voting against the Democrats. Thanks to Obama.

Artful Dodger: 3/4 of your comments have nothing to do with the oil spill, that's playing politics.What's with that Barton guy calling the 20 billion a shakedown slush fund?
People need concrete action just to put food on the table, he did achieve that for the time being.I think pretty much everybody agreed that BP were the best people to handle the situation early on, hindsight is 20/20

Jim Dandy: nonsense. It ALL has to do with the oil spill. Either directly or indirectly.

My last response was to your general comments post. Since you didn't address the oil spill, I simply responded to your general comments.

When Rachel maddox criticizes obama, you know he's in trouble.

Artful Dodger: I'm not impressed by the Obama era to this point,he has not fulfilled his promises in many areas.Basically has turned off his base,and been met by the cold shoulder from the right, not a recipe for a 2nd term

Jim Dandy: I think most of the "rest of the world" has the same thoughts. He isn't looked upon favourably here either...some politicians are right up his.....but the general population hasnt much faith in most of his"promises"

Artful Dodger: No-one thought it was as bad as this... first the oil leak was little, the more and then the current leak size .. ... ...

I don't think it is at all possible for Obama to ignore that a well was leaking. It was in the news enough.

The rest of your post is just spin.

Jim Dandy: I think you're spot on. I'm guessing the cold shoulder has several factors. For one, I don't really think Obama tried very hard to include the ideas of the Right in his policies. I think more he tried to convince them to accept his ideas and support them. The other factor is the arrogance of some on the left (Pelosi for one) and how they simply excluded the Right from participating in meaningful ways. Then there is always the loyalty factor. Loyalty to the party line (not necessarily a bad thing but certainly doesn't promote bipartisanship). When you hold the majority, you don't always have to give and take and in this case, the Dems held the majority and the Right was powerless. There goes our checks and balances.

June 18, 2010
BO poison
Thomas Lifson
Barack Obama now has negative coattails for candidates: an endorsement by him causes more voters to reject the candidate endorsed than support the endorsee. Variety, the showbiz newspaper, refers to unpopular actors as "BO [Box Office] Poison." The President with the same initials is voting booth poison. Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling notes:

PPP's most recent national survey found that while Obama had a positive approval rating at 48/47, only 33% of voters were more likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by him while 48% said support from Obama would make them less likely to vote for someone. That's because only 64% of voters who approve of the President say his endorsement would make them more inclined to vote for a candidate, but 91% who disapprove say Obama's support makes it less likely they would vote for one of his preferred candidates.

To put into perspective the perils of having Obama out on the campaign trail, consider the numbers in his home state of Illinois. Even there just 26% of voters say they'd be more inclined to back an Obama endorsed candidate while 40% say his support would be more likely to turn them against a candidate.

As the realization sinks in among Democrats that their president is leading them off a cliff, those interested in political survival may seek to rehabilitate their voter appeal by turning on his policies and voicing criticisms more openly. This also heightens the chances of an internal challenge to him for re-nomination. Perhaps the announcement of such a challenge will take place on Ecuadorian TV.

June 18, 2010
The liberal blinders lift on Obama
Tony Gallardo
There is a lot moaning, groaning, and gnashing of teeth coming from the lefties these days. They are battering Barack Obama like a piñata; but just a few months ago they proclaimed him to be the Messiah, a Savior, a combination of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, a sort of god, and even, according to Chris Matthews, "...the last Kennedy brother." (Why Matthews thinks this is a compliment is mystery to me, but there you have it.)

This is mostly just about the oil spill, but at least the scales seem to be falling from their adoring eyes.

They are stunned to learn that the man they told us would heal the world, end all wars, restore America's image in the world, unify us as a kind of Disneyland where the meerkats, hyenas, lions, monkeys, and crocodiles would all live side by side in harmony singing "It's a small world after all" is in reality just another average, run of the mill political hack who doesn't know his "you know what" from a hole in the ground.

Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Howard Fineman, James Carville, and Maureen Dowd simply cannot believe the incompetence of the man they once deified.

I have a question for you people. There are those of us who questioned and criticized Obama in the past, and we were routinely characterized as Nazis, racists, rednecks, and worse; now that you enlightened people are joining the chorus, does that make you Nazis, racists, rednecks, etc? If not, why not? Please defend yourselves, preferably in writing, and be specific in your answers.

I also have a suggestion; buck up and brace your selves. He has two and a half years left to screw more things up to a royal fare thee well.

Things are likely to get a whole lot worse.

Hell has frozen over! The far-left in America is turning on their guy Barack Obama. After his speech on the oil disaster a few days ago, the crazy left Greek chorus on MSNBC hammered the president. He wasn't specific enough, he was too weak, I don't sense "executive command," they wailed.

On the oil spill, a clear sign that Obama is not fit for the job:

Why did he not waive the Jones Act (he still hasn't) to allow foreign vessels to ply our waters to clean up the spill? Not because he was against it. He couldn't have been against so obvious a course as waiving it. It was likely because nobody told him about it, and he never knew to ask.

Incompetence

Why did he let the bureaucracy use only U.S. contractors to dredge the Gulf and build the berms that Lousiana wanted? Why did he spurn the offer of Dutch assistance (half the country has been dredged from the sea and is below sea level)? Not because he wanted the jobs to go to Americans. That would have been an insane consideration in the face of this crisis. It is probably because he never realized that our capacity for dredging needed augmentation. Because he never asked.

in competence

On June 9, President Obama announced a $400 million aid package to the West Bank and Gaza, which are currently two separate entities; the West Bank under the control of Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate by radical Islamic standards, and Gaza, which is run by the democratically-elected Islamic Resistance Movement, better known as the terrorist group Hamas.

Whatever else you can say about Obama, at least he never forgets his friends. Thanks to the investigative work of Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, we know that in 2007, Obama’s campaign received over $30 Thousand in illegal donations from Hamas-controlled Gaza.

he United States has, since 2001, listed Hamas as a “Specifically Designated Global Terrorist.” In the world community – or what passes for it – this is supposed to mean that the penalties for providing support to a SDGT are harsh.

Even the New York Times, which is, as a rule, sympathetic to terrorists, declared that, “the details of how the aid would be used in Gaza remained unclear. Nor was it immediately clear how Mr. Abbas, who has authority in the West Bank but not in Gaza, a would be able to administer it.”

Obama and his liberal pals here always tell us the most evil crime in the world is racial discrimination. And yet, they take our money and give it to people whose sole objective for their existence is to exterminate a race of people. Welcome to Obama’s world.

I reported before the 2008 election that Obama had been endorsed by Hamas leader Ahmed Yousef, who himself had been a Hamas operative inside the United States for years. He used several aliases, until I confronted him and informed him that I knew who he was. He denied that he worked for Hamas, and then promptly fled the country. Two years later, he turned up in Damascus, Syria as a senior Hamas leader.

President Obama is either completely ignorant of the war Islamic terrorists such as Hamas are waging against us, or worse. Until we know more, I have the unfortunate task of reporting to you that we are now, officially, a state sponsor of terrorism.

Buckley Carlson is a Washington-based political consultant.

Is the Obama administration intentionally scaling back clean-up efforts in the Gulf in an attempt to maximize the damage so Democrats in Congress will have an excuse to take effective control over yet another major sector of our economy and impose crippling and draconian new taxes on the American people?

Sher Zieve who wrote in the Canada Free Press: "Obama is doing the bare minimum so that destruction will be at an all-time maximum -- in order to shove his Cap and Trade bill (which will complete our destruction) down our throats."

"The BP oil disaster was custom-made for The Obama. The effective oil-skimmer systems utilized by the Saudis and others would work to greatly minimize the damage being caused to the US Gulf Coast. But, The Obama continues to drag his heels as States and lives are destroyed."

When the Dutch government offered to help us clean up the oil spewing from the leaking BP oil rig, Obama initially turned them down cold. Norwegian and Dutch firms offered to help us too, but Obama said no.

This much is certain -- in spite of what Obama told the American people during his Oval Office address to the nation, he did not adequately respond to this crisis. The administration has clearly failed in terms of organization and the use of resources available to the federal government.

Moreover, it's now indisputable that statists on Capitol Hill are attempting to exploit this disaster to push so-called cap and trade legislation. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently revealed: "At the same time as Americans wonder when this gusher will ever be plugged, we hear word that the administration and my good friend the majority leader want to piggy back their controversial new national energy tax -- also known as cap and trade -- to an oil spill response bill that could and should be an opportunity for true bipartisan cooperation. So here again, we see the administration using a crisis, in this case the disaster in the gulf, as an opportunity to muscle through Congress another deeply unpopular bill that has profound implications for small business and struggling households."

(playing politics with a tragedy)

Obama declared a moratorium on off-shore drilling and to make matters worse, Obama wants to institute a massive new energy tax, masquerading as sound energy policy (so-called cap and trade), that will dramatically raise the cost of just about everything you produce or consume, deprive you of income, control your behavior and repress your liberties.

Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, once said that you should never let a good crisis go to waste and Barack Obama and Democrats on Capitol Hill aren't about to let this crisis go to waste. He may pontificate about holding BP to account but Obama and his leftist cronies fully intend to exploit this crisis to sneak liberty-stealing cap and trade legislation past the American people.

.. conspiracy theory.

The bloggers dream.

(V): Perhaps not a conspiracy but then it's a show of complete incompetence.

re:"He may pontificate about holding BP to account but Obama and his leftist cronies fully intend to exploit this crisis to sneak liberty-stealing cap and trade legislation past the American people."

He could have taken lessons from the Bush admin,they milked 9/11 to the extreme.The Patriot Act is a good example of legislation that was pushed through using 9/11 as leverage,and it is a fine example of removing certain liberties.Heck, Rudy Giuliani can hardly get through a pargraph without invoking 9/11. it reached parody levels.

Artful Dodger: Um.. how? All I see is C&P conspiracy bloggers on overload.