Congress, Thirty Years of Energy Failure

Lead, follow or get out of the way.  When it comes to energy prices, Congress refuses to do anythng productive.  We are paying too much for energy, because for the past thrty years politicians have devoted a lot energy to talking and demonizing, and damn little to solving our energy problems.  Glen Beck has compressed thirty years of political hot air into three minutes,video:

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Hat tip:  Stop the ACLU.

Particular notes, among congressmen, Senator Chuckles seems be leading the league in rhetoric, and sound bites, but is dead last in solutions.   As to presidents, the Gipper was right when he said we need to increase domestic production.   The peanut farmer was dead wrong when he said that we will never import more oil than we did did in 1977.

For too long we have tolerated, and re-elected politicians who gave lewinsky to energy independence but actively impeded domestic energy production.  It is time for the voters to send all politicians who refuse to support domestic energy production back home.    Just say no to five dollar a gallon gasoline

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Sen. Charles E. Schumer publicly taunted bank regulators last week about IndyMac Bancorp’s financial condition, which helped trigger a sudden outflow of deposits from the Pasadena thrift. Now the New York Democrat is getting some harsh blowback from one current and one former regulator.

Their message, distilled: Zip it, Chuck.

As noted here on Monday, Schumer sent letters to the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. anhttp://bitsblog.theconservativereader.com/files/2007/07/schumer_charles.jpgd the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, saying he was “concerned that IndyMac’s financial deterioration poses significant risks to both taxpayers and borrowers.”

IndyMac, which has suffered huge losses on defaulted mortgage loans, “could face a failure if prescriptive measures are not taken quickly,” Schumer wrote.

Uh, wait a minute — how could Schumer know that? And since when are regulators supposed to tell the public in advance that a particular institution has been earmarked for failure? All that would do is guarantee a collapse. If depositors are within FDIC insurance limits they have nothing to worry about, anyway.

That pretty much sums up the content of a letter to Schumer today from John M. Reich, director of the Office of Thrift Supervision.

“As a regulator of insured depository institutions, we do not publicly comment on the financial condition or supervisory activities related to open and operating institutions,” Reich wrote. “We believe it is critically important to maintain the confidentiality of examination and supervision information.”

That’s Tom Petruno of the LA Times blog.

He went on: “Dissemination of incomplete or erroneous information can erode public confidence, mislead depositors and investors, and cause unintended consequences, including depositor runs and panic stock trades. Rumors and innuendo cause damage to financial institutions that might not occur otherwise and these concerns drive our strict policy of privacy.”

Ya know, one would almost think that what Schumer is about is eroding public confidence in the economy. Now why do you suppose he’d want to do that? Why would Schumer, a Democrat from as far to the left end of the scale as one might imagine, want to erode public economic confidence during a Republican administration, and during an election year?

Gee, I wonder.

Aside from the rather nasty implications of that, one also must wonder if Schumer profits from this in terms of stock holdings in IndyMac’s competition. But however that falls out, this was nothing but market manipulation from his government perch… along with the use of government provided insider information, for which Schumer should stand trial, and prison. And keep in mind, I live in New York State.\

Addendum:  (David L)

Michelle has more.

The old jobe is that a conservative is liberal who was mugged.  Greg Sargent, TPM, reports Brian Beutler, was shoot in the course of mugging in DC:

Brian Beutler, a well-known progressive blogger, was shot and seriously injured during a mugging last night in Washington, D.C.

One bullet damaged Beutler’s spleen, and he had it removed during surgery this morning at the Washington Hospital Center. He’s expected to make a “pre-trauma” recovery, which is to say, a completely full recovery.

John Aravosis, America Blog, describes the war zone:

The neighborhood he was shot in, like a 5 minute walk from me, has an ongoing gang war on the very corner he was shot. It’s been going on for years. And years. And years. But DC is such an inept city, that all we hear about is how fighting crime is hard work. Sound familiar?

We wish Brian a full and speedy recovery.

It must be remembered that the SCOTUS Heller decision only applied to firearms in the home.   Heller left intact DC’s assinine laws requiring law abiding citizens to travel unarmed, in a bloody war zone.  Free citizens have the God given right to keep and bear arms anywhere they travel.   The residents of DC are but serfs.

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The old media is dying.  The dead tree media is slashing payroll.  Yet among the shrinking Bears, the iconic Bull of Broacasting, has reupped for 400 million dollars. Brian Maloney, Radio Equalizer, has the stunning totals:

Meanwhile, a key industry source confirms speculation that Limbaugh has signed a stunning mega contract renewal deal with Premiere Radio Networks and parent company Clear Channel Communications.

Radio is pay for performance.   Rush performs.  Rush gets paid.   Al Franken, take note.

Aside to Bit, what would I be worth if I could get twenty million hits per week?

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• Hey, Bruce… I would argue they ARE in fact consumer driven, and have been so, all along. Consumer demand for Altoids boxes on wheels has simply not been there, and so they didn’t get built.  Couple that with the idea that even with prices for fuel being what they are just now, for most people, the savings in fuel costs don’t come even close to outweighing the cost of a new payment book for a smaller car, which traditionally do not outlast such payment books, and the demand STILL isn’t going to be there. The American consumer isn’t quite that stupid.  I’d back that with the results of a poll done by Pew Research, which reports that more people back more drilling, than do ‘conservation’.  what does this say for the chances of the Democrats and their current position on such matters, and their culpability for our current situation? Almost makes the President’s call today for Americans to pressure Congress on the matter, just so much noise. Almost. I tell you, gang…There’s a flamethrower about to be placed under the as of Congressional Democrats.  Just in time for November.
• I note with some amusment, Hinderaker at Powerline  putting a cap on the Clark thing.  He’s right, of course. The guy needs to be someplace nice. He needs to be watched over. Sedated, possibly.
• Starbucks is falling on hard times, apparently closing 600 stores, and dropping 12,000 baristas from it’s payrolls.  Gee, big shock, that. Their coffee is one of the few things I buy of late that’s more expensive  than gasoline. Starbucks stockw as up on the news… and one supposes will be for a while.  But this will damage them in the end, I suspect.
• Glad they caught this bit of slime. Just think; if one of the dead had a gun to hand…
• Radio Equalizer saysLimbaugh’s signed a great contract… $400M is the figure Drudge is tossing around. LOL… Good for you, Rush.  Let’s be clear about this; the reason he’s getting the money, is he gets the listeners. The lack of that abiilty is why Err America is stuck on rimshotters, and is basically walking dead.  I cannot imagine though, that this isn’t going to come up in the push for the ‘Fairness” doctrine.  Interestingly, the JammieWearingFool notesthat the stroy so shocked the New York Timesthat they didn’t have time to create a hit peice, but rather simply ran the story. A historic day, this.
• Boortz has started a list of issues that Obama has flip-flopped on. Michelle has, as well.
• Did you notice that progress is being made in Iraq?  I’ll write about this in more detail this weekend, but this is yet another example of Democrats not accepting good news from Iraq, even when they asked for it.
• I told you this bit with Microsoft and Yahoo wasn’t over. I was right.
• Apparently, someone went round a bunch of houses in Houston last night, dropping copies of the Koran on doorsteps. Wonder how many of them ended up being burned, dropped in the trash or the crapper? We’ll hear all about the Muslim outrage over the weekend, I’m quite sure.

Well, now we have a pretty good idea why the Democrats weren’t interested in examining the Countrywide Loan busienss too closely. The WaPo:

Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois.

The freshman Democratic senator received a discount. He locked in an interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, below the average for such loans at the time in Chicago. The loan was unusually large, known in banker lingo as a “super super jumbo.” Obama paid no origination fee or discount points, as some consumers do to reduce their interest rates.

…

“The real question is: Were congressmen getting unique treatment that others weren’t getting?” associate law professor Adam J. Levitin, a credit specialist at Georgetown University Law Center, said about the Countrywide loans. “Do they do business like that for people who are not congressmen? If they don’t, that’s a problem.”

 

Well, OK, look; A problem it may well be, from a moral standpoint. And from a legal one. But was it a unique situation? We both know better.  I thnk, however, what a lot of Americans will find troublesome about this whole mess is that Obama’s been making all kinds of political milage on ‘sweetheart deals’ from the bank loan industry.

McQ over at Q&O suggests:

Investor’s Business Daily brings us the latest from probably the worst Majority Leader the Senate has seen in a very long time:

The Dr. No of the drill-nothing Congress tried to deflect the issue of rising gas prices Monday by telling Fox Business News that there are costs we should worry about besides those stemming from Democratic inaction. Our guilt is supposed to replace our anger. “Coal makes us sick,” Reid said, “oil makes us sick, it’s global warming, it’s ruining our country, it’s ruining our world, we’ve got to stop using fossil fuel . . . .”

In this case, he’s partially right – we all know that in a perfect world, we’d be using something else – an alternative. But this isn’t a perfect world and our energy needs aren’t going to stand still as we try to develop alternatives. So we have to deal with and use what is available now and exploit it.

The problem is, “Dr. No” isn’t just against petroleum and coal, but he’s also against the use of very clean nuclear energy.
…

Not only have nuclear power plants, drilling and petroleum refineries been stopped by the environmental movement, so-called clean energy projects have been stopped in their tracks as well – aided and abetted by the likes off Harry Reid. He has no solutions, only road-blocks. And the candidate he supports is no better…

Which is EXACTLY why I’ve said repeatedly, ad nauseum, that the worst thing you can give a Democrat is what they ask for. An actual solution to a problem removes the wedge that keeps them proped in their position of governmental power… else the solution they demand makes the situation that much worse. Either way…

And in the case of energy, these problems are ones caused by such as Reid in the first place, as I said yesterday…

Consider; what is the reaction to high prices? A push on the part of consumers for increased oil and gas drilling by removing the ‘green’ restrictions. A push for more nuclear power generation. A push for increased use of coal.  All of which runs in the face of the greenies that have so dominated our energy policy since the middle 70’s, and have driven us into the ground economically. And guess which side of that fence Obama is on?

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Over at The Politico, this morning, I note with interest a bit from James Kirchick, describing the fable of Republican smear tactics. (As an aside, interestingly, Kirkpatrick’s the New Republic’s assitant editor)

The only obstacle between Barack Obama and the presidency is the mountain of smears that will no doubt come his way. That’s the narrative that Obama supporters â€” and his swooning chroniclers in the mainstream media â€” would have us believe.

…

Writers Evan Thomas and Richard Wolfe concluded that the 2008 presidential election will be no different. “It is a sure bet that the GOP will try to paint Obama as ‘the other’ â€” as a haughty black intellectual who has Muslim roots (Obama is a Christian) and hangs around with America-haters.”

But has it been a “sure bet?”

Not really. Thus far, no one with any serious affiliation to John McCain’s campaign has resorted to the alleged “scare” tactics in which Republicans â€” and, apparently, only Republicans â€” have been perfecting since Richard Nixon was first elected. On the contrary, if the past few months have showed us anything, it’s that the Obama campaign is the one dealing in crude smears.

Kirchick then goes on to discuss the incidents in some detail. As I suggested yesterday, the bit with  Clark is emblematic of the pattern thusfar;

Here it is, people…When the Obama supporters all start mouthing exactly the same nonsense… when clearly, Clark, for one, hasn’t the wit to come up with this stuff by himself, what we have here is an organized effort by the Obama camp. Obama’s been doing this all along; Surrogates end up saying the smears and other trash talk the campaign needs to spread, and when things get too hot because of what gets said, Obama simply tosses the speaker under the bus, and claims he’s running a ‘clean campaign’, and he’s shocked…. shocked… that any of his people would come up with such a comment.

The reality of all this is that Obama’s campaign has been nothing if not disciplined and well organized, in nearly ever detail. They know full well what is at stake here, and how hard they have to work to gain the office. Given that, it’s hard to imagine that the pattern as I mentioned yesterday is anything but part of the plan… particularly when it has occurred so often in this campaign.

As for the charge that Republicans are basing their campaign on smear tactics, Kirchick addresses this well;

The belief that “the Republican Party has been successfully scaring voters since 1968” is a comforting salve for Democrats. After all, it’s much easier for them to demonize conservatives than consider that the reason for their electoral defeats may lie with liberal ideas

That’s the reality, and it’s exactly the argument we’ve made here, repeatedly since the election began. But don’t expect liberals to admit this anytime soon, even after a November defeat.

Addendum: (Bit)

James Joyner at Outside the Beltway  notes the same story and makes a couple great points:

Is there a smear campaign to undermine public confidence in Barack Obama’s patriotism and that of his wife?  To say that he’s a Muslim and might be terrorist-friendly?  Yup.  Were they promulgated by Republicans?  No, by Hillary Clinton supporters, actually.  Will Republicans pick up the ball?  Probably.

The “Who’s smearing more?” game is silly at this point since McCain has been the presumptive Republican nominee for months and has thus been the object of Democratic attacks for much longer.  By contrast, there hasn’t been much need for the GOP to smear Obama, since Clintonistas like  Larry Johnson were more than happy to do it.  

I would submit that this has been the pattern in previous campaigns, as well. Willie Horton for example, was actually brought up by Al Gore. Etc, etc.

(Edit, Bit typos, and apparently, I need to remove “Kirkpatrick” from my auto-speller)

My boy, Matt got himself a new camera for graduation. So night before last, we ran out to Bergen to try can capture some rail traffic. As we were going there, we ran through a rainstorm. On getting there, the rain had stopped, and we were treated to two sights… a rainbow and in the other direction a few minutes later, a sunset.

• Supposedly, WordPress 2.6 is on it’s way. My guess is it’ll show up on the 4th or after.  We’ll see if I install it or not.
• Prince Chuckles has converted his Aston Martin to run on English Wine.  I’ve driven an Aston-Martin, and have had English wine. The two are a natural for each other; Trust me on this one.
• The difference between liberals and conservatives? When Conservatives find oil on their property, they drill for it. 
• Meanwhile, oil consumption has fallen back to 2002 levels. In fact, word-wide demand has followed suit. And yet, no price drops.  Explain to me how this is all free market stuff and isn’t being manipulated, again.
• Arthur Silber is a little creeped out by Obama fans. Well, look, I have to say I’ve always been a little creeped out by Silber, too. He’s an astute observer, but seems to have problems coming to grips with the implications of his observations. For example, is Silber still supporting Obama himself? The bid to recreate 1968 still goes on. Apparently the Democrats have decided to keep the animals in their cages for the duration. Yeah, like that’ll work.
• Apparently Canadians prefer Obama to their own leaders. And we prefer they’d take him, and keep him.
• Boortz notes that Obama’s flip flopping on issues rather a lot of late.
• David’s noted this before, but there doesn’t appear to be anything getting done at Ground Zero. The reason? Government. Who runs the government in NY? Democrats.
• Doesn’t it strike anyone as odd, that Clark, whose only claim to fame was that he as a general… albeit one that got his butt canned for gross incompetance… ran for president as “General Wesley Clark”, turns around four years later to question the idea that military service isn’t relevant and a great addition to a resume for someone running for POTUS?

How dare Obama and his minions attack the military record of John McCain. Where and when did Obama serve? What sacrifice has he or his family made on the battlefield? Unlike John Kerry, where are those who served with McCain in combat claiming anything other then his honorable selfless service?

Joe Repya, Eagle’s Nest, via, Ed Morrissey, Hot Air.

I favor a hard time table.  This one is lost.  It is time to set an irreversable deadline to withdraw all taxpayer funding from PBS.  Michelle has news of yet another effort  by PBS to trash America:

Adam Buckman at the NYPost blew the whistle last week on a moral equivalence-marinated PBS documentary that airs tonight. Melanie Morgan and I chatted about the smearing of the Greatest Generation with Rush Limbaugh during the “From the Frontlines” web-a-thon on Friday. I’ve heard from many upset WWII vets. Read Adam’s column here.

Adam Buckman, New York Post:

MEMBERS of the Greatest Generation – especially those with weak hearts – might want to steer clear of an upcoming PBS documentary that suggests the Allied victory in World War II was “tainted” and questions whether it can even be called a victory.

Moreover, the documentary, titled “The War of the World: A New History of the 20th Century,” asserts that the war could only be won by forming an unholy alliance with a dictator – Joseph Stalin, who was as brutal as the one they were fighting, Adolf Hitler – and by adopting the same “pitiless” and “remorseless” tactics practiced by the enemy

My retrospective question is not if a different strategy mght have resulted in the Axis winning World War Two, but rather the price that would have been associated with the alternative strategy.  Given that we had both the atomic bomb and the means of delievering it, the B-29, take it as a given that the Allies were going to prevail.   Little Boy would have worked just as well over Berlin.

The previous century was the deadliest in human history, higher populations brought about by medical and agricultural advances meet mechanized machines of war.   World War Two did not turn a peaceful century bloody.  Nor dd the war pacify a war infested world.   On the other hand, the war did pacify Europe and Japan.   The world in the wake of World War Two was somewhat more peaceful than the antebellum years, albeit far from ideal.   Piero Scaruffi,”Wars and Genocides of the 20th Century”

The Greatest Generation did indeed earn their acclaim.  Bravo Zulu.

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We see by way of Ben Smith this monring that Idiot Wes Clark still can’t keep his mouth shut, apparently referring to bury himself by what comes out of it. That’s bad enough. But now, by way of Q&O and ABC news, we see that Clark isn’t the only one:

There was a time, and not too long ago, that some criticisms were so beyond the pale, that no politician would dream of using them to denigrate a political opponent. To do so would invite such a negative backlash that voters would reject in disgust the candidate who did so.

Those times, apparently, are past, at least for the candidate’s supporters.

After General Wesley Clark’s dismissal of John McCain’s POW experience in Vietnam, yet another Obama supporter has stepped in with the same criticism.

While Barack Obama was urging supporters not to devalue the military service of rival John McCain, an informal Obama adviser argued Monday that the former POW’s isolation during the Vietnam War has hobbled the Arizona senator’s capacity as a war-time leader.

“Sadly, Sen. McCain was not available during those times, and I say that with all due respect to him,” said informal Obama adviser Rand Beers. “I think that the notion that the members of the Senate who were in the ground forces or who were ashore in Vietnam have a very different view of Vietnam and the cost that you described than John McCain does because he was in isolation essentially for many of those years and did not experience the turmoil here or the challenges that were involved for those of us who served in Vietnam during the Vietnam war.”

“So I think,” he continued, “to some extent his national security experience in that regard is sadly limited and I think it is reflected in some of the ways that he thinks about how U.S. forces might be committed to conflicts around the world.”

So much for the concept that the attacks on McCain’s military service didn’t come from Obama’s camp, but rather came from Confirmed Idiot Wes Clark. With this note, all that illusion is gone.

Here it is, people…When the Obama supporters all start mouthing exactly the same nonsense… when clearly, Clark, for one, hasn’t the wit to come up with this stuff by himself, what we have here is an organized effort by the Obama camp. Obama’s been doing this all along; Surrogates end up saying the smears and other trash talk the campaign needs to spread, and when things get too hot because of what gets said, Obama simply tosses the speaker under the bus, and claims he’s running a ‘clean campaign’, and he’s shocked…. shocked… that any of his people would come up with such a comment.

Addendum:(Bit)

And now, we see where Obama supoprters are charging that John McCain is guilty of war crimes.

Such idiocy is the staple of leftism, today.

Addendum II:  (David L)

BO was not content to slime just Captain McCain.   BO has done a Kerry and slimed all American Fighting Men, oddy enough to include Kerry, Bob Kerrey, John Murtha and Al Gore.   BO has made it personal.  This slime will not be allowed to stand.

If you extend the logic, BO just impugned all who ever wore the uniform to include, George McGovern, John Kennedy and Harry Truman.

Others blogging: 

michellemalkin.com, Power Line, and Hot Air. Also, Memeorandum has more.

Bit Rambled this earlier. Freeping illiterate fools,  Can anybody, at all, on the Chicago Tribune know how to read?   Apparently not,  From the Chicago Tribune:

No, we don’t suppose that’s going to happen any time soon. But it should.

The 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is evidence that, while the founding fathers were brilliant men, they could have used an editor.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Evidently the ChiTrib is incapable of understanding the concept of the phrase “shall not be infringed.”  The Second Amendment does not establish the People’s right to keep and bear arms.   The right of free men to keep and bear arms is God given   The Second only acknowledges that the state will not infringe upon the right of the People.  Minus the Second, the right to keep and bear arms is still God given and the state still lacks any legitimate power to infringe upon it.  May the Lord have mercy for those who try.

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OK, I’m back. Well, really I was back yesterday, but because my hours were so screwy Friday and Saturday because of the Fostoria Ohio trip, I really wasn’t fully back into it, all day on Sunday, and frankly, I’m still not hitting on all holes yet.  Essentially, yesterday was a jet lag day, where I recovered from the hours inflicted on us by the demands o the trip.  well, that and I made a first crack at wading through the gigs of vid and stills we took while there, looking for a few to post. I’ll get to that, tonight, and you’ll see the first of that stuff tommorow, perhaps.

Driving, particularly long haul driving, is when I usually have lots of time to myself to think, and with the price of fuel of late, it’s a time that comes all too rarely.  One of the things I’ve been considering is this blog, and it’s future. Both it’s look and feel and it’s writing. I’ve decided that in the end, I’m pleased with what we’ve accomplished, here at BitsBlog.  I would still like to pick up one additional writer, to add some additional perspective, and content,  but honestly, I can’t complain at all about the things we’ve managed to do with the place, day in and day out for nearly 8 years, now. I do have a few ideas about the look and feel, though, as a result of this trip,  and I’ll be doing some coding over the summer to move us to where I think our look and feel needs to be.

One thing I’ve noticed is my political discourse has become a bit sharper of late, particularly online. A more “No prisoners” atitude.  One of two things; Either I just don’t care anymore, having run out of pateince, or I’m starting to take all of this more seriously. I’m not sure which. A few folks have noted the change in the last week, and have commented on it. I’m not sure I’m concerned, I merely make note of it.

All that said, let’s look around the place and see what needs flaying.

• My comments to David’s great post earlier today don’t begin to express my disgust with Wesley Clark. Consider the weaker sperm that didn’t make it, which allowed that bit of walking slime to be inflicted on the world. It’s not often discussed, but you should know going forward that Clark was fired… removed from command, disgraced, for incompetance.  It strikes me that his judgements about military matters are thereby faulty as such, to begin with.  Yet, this is the kind of inDUHvidual that assocaites himself with Barack Obama, and Obama with him.  That tells me all I need know about the value and the level of honor involved with Barack Obama, and what values he would bring to the White House, if we were ever stupid enough to elect the man. I shouldn’t worry about that point; Look, I think I’ve made it clear over the last few months that I’m no huge fan of McCain. But at the bottom line,  I think the American people know who got his backside canned, who gamed the system, and who was a true servant of his country, and how to treat the political asperations of each.
• I don’t think it’s a lie, Billy, I think you’re mis-identifying the cause of the look; If there’s one thing she worships, it’s power.  It’s not the man, it’s what he has in terms of power potential.
• Hey, Steve; It strikes me that what you’re describing here is one of the penalties for having a word appropriated by a a group, in the process of advancing it’s own politics.  That most certainly is not the fault of the AFA, but rather of thse who appropriated the word. We lost the use of a word because someone thought “Homosexual” was too hard to deal with, from a social/political perspective.
• Well, now you begin to understand why I moved this blog off Blogspot a few years ago. That choice seems to have been reinforced. I’m convinced I’d have been thrown off the service by now, had I stayed.  Assuming the best answer, here.. that Google is simply responding to complaints foled by Obama supporters, why should we think anything but that we’ll see more of this kind of thing from Obama supporters, and from Google in the future? Why should we think that the ‘fairness doctrine’ that the Democrats are drooling over won’t be pushed next year? After all, both the ‘fairness doctrine’ and this chain of locking opposition blogs has the same effect; Silencing any and all opposition. Rather Gestopo like, I think. Or, perhaps Old Chicago Politics. Is this the ‘new’ politics Obama keeps prattling on about?
• I commend Neal Gabler’s column to your reading. 
• Also, McQ’s post on AGW, here.
• Here, too.
• Will someone please tell me what the hell they’re thinking when they try to sell such things are brake rotors, by picturing the rotors being held by a girl in a Bikini? I mean, I suppose it’s a way to shout louder. But it’s the first sign to my mind that reason has gone out the window. “Well, they must be good quality…. she likes ’em.”  “Does the girl come with ’em?” “Remember that diet plan, honey? Forget it. We’ve gotta buy brake rotors, instead.” Worse, she’s not pictured as being simply next to them, someone’s done some photoshop work, making it look like she’s HOLDING the thing… impossible, given her figure. Next week, we’ll see the same girl holding a transmission. Oh… and I should mention… when I work on such things, there’s nothing for the clothes but a flamethrower… grease spots. The Girl, though, there’s no grease on her at all, from the parts she’s suppsoedly holding. The sad part is, like Spam… the reason it’s there, is because like it or not, it works.
• The BBC is reporting that we’re starting to see backlash around the world on the push for more ‘biofuels’.  30 million people sunk in poverty because of the Bio-fuel scam.  Look, it’s become clear our move to ‘green’ is short sighted, and people around the world are waking up to this fact. Nowhere, I think is that pushback being taken more seriously than here in the US. Consider; what is the reaction to high prices? A push on the part of consumers for increased oil and gas drilling by removing the ‘green’ restrictions. A push for more nuclear power generation. A push for increased use of coal.  All of which runs in the face of the greenies that have so dominated our energy policy since the middle 70’s, and have driven us into the ground economically. And guess which side of that fence Obama is on?
• The Canadian healthcare system a failure. No, wait, this isn’t me saying it,  it’s Claude Castonguay , the guy who designed it. and so many… Obama included… want us to set our healthcare system to match that model? Gee, can you imagine that might not be a good thing?
• Another model takes the plunge. Ya know, it’s just a thought, but perhaps that life isn’t so glamorous after all?
• A third place and an honorable mention at OTB’s caption contest.
• There is such a thing as being stupid. Usually the stupid ones don’t end up paying the price. In this case, he did. It’s amazing to me that Amusment parks exist at all, anymore; You know as well as I do what will happen once the lawyers get into this one.. regardless of the number of fences the idiot had to jump over to get into that position.
• Let’s see… an added pumping rate of  4.5 million barrels of oil per day. think that’ll change the prices of oil on the world market? It’ll happen in a lot faster time than 5 years, once these negotiations get completed. Short is the word. Also, keep what you’re currently driving. No sense going to this kind of nonsense. (In pic right) The added cost of the car will swamp any savings on fuel you might have. And you’ll still be stuck with the stupid thing when prices come back down.
• Not too suprising to see the ChiTrib calling for a repeal of the Second Amendment. Now that the court has finally ruled on the thing, and cast in legalistic stone what the amendment says… (Ummm…what it has always meant… and what the left has always claimed it didn’t mean),  the Trib is down to calling for it’s removal. In effect they’re admitting defeat in trying to overturn the second by means of judicial fiat… a tool they’ve used so often before.  I will stipulate that it’s within their rights to do so, of course.   But it’s worth noting that their stealth attack on the 2nd is now a frontal assualt. It will fail, of course… but the intentions places like the ChiTrib are laid bare for all to see. You’d think that of all places, Chicago would be the last place calling for the outlawing of something, given their history with such laws in the past… but there it is. BTW, you’ll see NRA lawsuits in Chicago, shortly. SanFran, too.

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