If John McCain is Slow, BO is Brain Dead

Charles Krauthammer explains the problem with John McCain’s energy policy and with Barack Obama’s entire campaign, Washington Post::

Alas, McCain’s proposed reform is only partial. Still better than Obama, however, who refuses to deviate from liberal orthodoxy. But that is the story of his campaign, is it not?

BO just can not think outside his extreme liberal orthodoxy.   It doesn’t make him much of a senator, and it  would make him a disaster as president.

?

Ben Castlemen at the WSJ this morning points out that lifting the drilling ban would not be an immididate fix for our situation.

If the bans were lifted tomorrow, it would be at least seven years — and likely as long as a decade — before the first oil began to flow off the coasts of Florida, California and the eastern seaboard.

I have to admit being a little annoyed that we’re still fixated on a quick fix for our oil problems.  THe claim that the fix wasn’t going to be fast enough is exactly why Bubba claimed he wasn’t going to drillin in ANWR, remember? We see where THAT got us.

Look, gang, there’s no question we’re going to have a rough few years where Energy is concerned. This is simply one more price that has come due, resulting from Bill clinton being President, and too many Republicans bowing to the Al Gores of the world.  It’s time to bite the bullet, and start drilling.

It’s not all bad, however, for the short term.

One of the things history shows us about OPEC, is that they tend to raise output, and thus lower prices, in an attempt to price out any new field that comes online, to make them unprofitable.  That’s what happened back when the Alaska pipeline first went in. So the effects of our committing to drilling domstically, will be nearly immididate.  The recent uipping of output by the Saudis proves that they’re not lacking for more capacity than they’re using, and so are quite likely to repeat their monopolistic move of the early 80’s.

It’s on that basis that I’ve been saying and continue to say, that all it’s going to take is commitment to domestic drilling on our part… and we’re going back to $80/bbl territory. I’d suggest we will be starting down that slope by midsummer… and I see nothing on the horizon yet to change that view.

It’s Voter anger that is going to change our direction.  Anger against the bowing to the enviro-nazis, and the anti-oil types. These people would have us back with cart and horse. The voters now have a full understanding of that, now that the price is up, and because that price is directly related to the policies they’ve been shoving down American’s throat the last 30 years.

John McCain seems to have the upper hand here as the result, having reacted almost correctly to that anger.  I’ve been saying that the party that commits to domestic drilling and refining will have this next election in hand. Again I say, McCain’s reaction isn’t perfect; (He’s sill holding out on ANWR, though he should not be.)  But the offshore stuff has placed the blame for the lack of solution sqaurely where it belongs… at the feet of the Democrats.  THe trick here is going to be keeping the pressure on.

• Interesting post over at OTB on the finding of a possible cause for homosexuality. this raises all the poits I raised as  far back as 1998, as you’ll see in the comments, there.  Oh, they’re apparently getting very close indeed on cancer cures, too. Funny how the latter of the two gets less press.
• Well, yeah… where DOES affirmative action end?  Of course, it’s not like we’ve not also been asking that question for years…
• Private investment in Iraqi oil really is the way forward for them. Nice to see.
• What on earth were the conditions leading to this?
• Well, perhaps this was a help: Jamie Lynn Spears had her baby… a girl, in case you were curious, or had a bet going.  A little advice for the baby; Don’t plan on seeing much of the father after the cameras go away, kid. Meantime Britt still looks like she’s pregnant, too. I guess that fits the mold.
• I’ve never getten into Twitter. As it came out, I’m glad of it, too.
• Firefox v3 has a new Vul you’ll want to know about if you’re using it.
• Jack Murtha’s about to get himself sued.  over his Hadittha comments.   Good… assuming the taxpayers don’t end up fotting his bills… it should come out of HIS OWN pocket, and the court should see to that.
• It’s a slower week in blog traffic this week, both here at BitsBlog and in blogs in general, if I read the data correctly.
• The Saudis have made their ouput hike official. So much for the claim that they couldn’t do it.
• The Florack clan is planning a mad dash out to western Ohio and back weekend after this… all on a daytrip.  About 400 miles each way. 800 miles Round trip. We’ve done this a few times before. I’ll post some notes and pics from the trip of course.

Found this while digging around in my archive tapes for something else, dated 2001. Source at the moment is unknown.  I only managed to get part if the file back off the tape.

-0-

Fact 1 -The Coastal Plain of ANWR is America’s best bet for the discovery of another giant “Prudhoe Bay-sized” oil and gas region in North America. Many economic benefits would result: – The Coastal Plain could produce up to 1.5 million barrels per day for at least 25 years – nearly 25% of current daily U.S. production. – The U.S. would save $14 billion per year in oil imports. Federal revenues would be enhanced by billions of dollars from bonus bids, lease rentals, royalties, and taxes. Estimates in 1995 on bonus bids alone were $2.6 billion.

Fact 2 -EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2000 reference, the potential ANWR oil recovered would have a value between $125 and $350 billion.

Fact 3 -The estimates for the entire 1002 area (Coastal Plain), within this area, USGS 1998 estimates that there are between 15.6 and 42.3 billion barrels of oil in place, with a mean of 27.8 billion barrels.

Fact 4 -More than two out of three Alaskans (75%) report they support exploration on the Coastal Plain of ANWR. Annual polling conducted in by the Dittman Research Corporation demonstrated that a vast majority of Alaskans continue to support opening ANWR to oil and gas exploration.

Fact 5 -The U.S. imports over 57% of the nation’s needed petroleum. These oil imports cost more than $100 billion a year. These figures are rising and could exceed 65% imports by the year 2005. ANWR production could replace imports of Saudi oil for over 30 years.

Fact 6 -A 200 day supply is almost 4 billion barrels. The Coastal Plain probably contains much more oil, but it can be produced at a maximum rate of 2 million barrels per day (capacity of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline). Therefore, it could last for 25 years, and probably much longer.

Fact 7 -ANWR. Doyon Ltd., a Native regional corporation with Gwich’in shareholders, supports ANWR development. Further, the Alaska Federation of Natives with a membership of 90,000 Alaska Natives is also in support of this issue.

Fact 8 -There are no listed endangered species on the North Slope or in the coastal plain. Alaskans have always trod lightly on the land and have honored the animals as a source of sustenance.

Fact 9 -A national survey conducted by the Christian Science Monitor in October showed that Americans support oil production in the ANWR, by a 54 to 36 percent margin.

Fact 10 -City governments in Alaska support exploration and development on the Coastal Plain of ANWR. They understand the direct benefits to communities that nearly 30 years of oil and gas development on the North Slope has brought to them in the form of jobs, tax base, state funds for local roads, schools, public buildings and services. Many individuals from local governments have participated in education visits around the country.

Fact 11 -The Alaska state Legislature has in the past passed a Resolution supporting ANWR development by 60 votes to zero.

Fact 12 -The Inupiat Eskimos who live on Alaska’s North Slope and the residents of Kaktovik, who live on the coastal plain itself, all support careful development there, “in their back yard”, or “on their dining room table”.

Fact 13 -All the major union groups such as the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters, the Maritime unions have been involved in oil development in Alaska. In recent years they have occupied at least 50% of the development jobs on the North Slope and have a good relationship with the major oil producers.

Fact 14 -Economists at the Wharton School of Econometrics in Pennsylvania have calculated that full development of the estimated reserves of oil beneath the coastal plain would generate about 735,000 jobs nation-wide in every state in America. The Unions would like to take their fair share of those jobs which would often be long term and high paying.

Fact 15 -In 1995 both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate passed legislation to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to careful oil and gas leasing and development. The legislation never became law because President Clinton vetoed the Budget Bill.

Fact 16 -In several public opinion polls made in 1995 Americans were almost entirely unaware of the issue surrounding oil development in ANWR. However, when they were told that development was opposed by environmentalists and the Secretary of the Interior, but supported by the government of Alaska and the vast majority of Alaskan natives, they responded 45% to 44% in favor of development. The margin of support increased to 56% in favor and 37% opposed when additional facts on the issue were provided to them. A very high majority, 74%, favored searching for domestic oil rather than importing foreign oil.

Fact 17 -No oil from the North Slope has been exported. Exports can be stopped by a Presidential order. The U.S. exports advanced technologies, much more valuable and unique than oil. Few object to that.

Fact 18 -The federal government won litigation in the Supreme Court of the United States, which allows congress to determine the share of revenues with the State of Alaska. Congress wants 50/50.

Fact 19 -Studies from 1982 to 2000 by the state of Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game, and in 2000 by Yukon Territory’s Renewable Resources Department, show that over those 18 years only 43 percent of the Porcupine caribou herd used the “1002” area. In 10 out of 19 years, less than 50 percent of the herd calved in the area; in four out of 19 years (1990, 1991, 1995 and 1998) a large portion of the Porcupine herd used the area for calving, but in five out of the 19 years (1982, 1986, 1987, 1988 and 2000) very few if any – calves were born in the 1002 area.

Fact 20 -It would appear that caribou are not affected by oil development on the North Slope, based on scientists’ observations. The Central Arctic Herd, which uses the area around Prudhoe Bay, has increased five fold in population since oil development started in the early 1970s. There are four major caribou herds in northern Alaska. Besides the Porcupine and Central Arctic herds, there is the Western Arctic Herd, which is more than twice the size of the Porcupine Herd, and the smaller Teshekpuk Lake herd. Populations of these herds rise and fall by natural cycles. Three decades of oil and gas activity in the central North Slope has had no apparent impact.

Fact 21 -The coastal plain is host to a village of about 260 Inupiat natives on their 92,000 acres of land. The village of Kaktovik has housing, schools, stores, boats, an airstrip, power lines and a variety of other modern-day facilities, including an oil well. The U.S. military’s Barter Island Distant Early Warning System radar site is also on the plain’s shoreline. Most of the residents of Kaktovik favor drilling.

Fact 22 -Out of Alaska’s 1,500 mile Arctic shore-line, only 14 percent is open to oil and gas exploration.

Fact 23 -Refuge totals 19.6 million acres. 8 million acres designated Wilderness; Coastal Plain, 1.5 million acres, set aside by Congress for study of oil potential; Only a small percentage of Coastal Plain, about 2,000 acres, would be impacted by oil development; That is the equivalent of 1/100 of 1 percent.

Fact 24 -The bulk of the refuge, 92 percent, remains protected with half of its 19.6 million already designated as wilderness, including a section of the refuge’s coastal plain that abuts Canada’s 3-mil-lion- acre Northern Yukon National Park.

Fact 25 -Proposals have been made to declare the 1.5 million acre section of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as Wilderness. This area, 8 percent of the refuge, was set aside by Congress in 1980 for study of its oil and gas potential.

Fact 26 -Alaska’s Wilderness lands were made into one state, they would become the 11th largest in the nation, or larger than the combined areas of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.

Fact 27 -The Alaskan State House in the past passed Senate Joint Resolution 9 by a vote of 33 to 1 urging the United States Congress to pass legislation that will open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, (ANWR) to oil and gas exploration, development and production.

Fact 28 -Ex. Vice President Gore has enthusiastically pressured American oil companies active involvement in oil exploration in eastern Siberia. The geography and physical conditions of that region are identical to arctic Alaska. The only difference is the regulatory protection of the environment, which, compared to Alaska, is minimal. So much for protecting Planet Earth!

Fact 29 -The Government of Canada has been equally hypocritical about oil development in the range of the Porcupine Caribou Herd. In the 1960’s and 70’s the Canadians leased all their land in the area to oil companies who drilled over 90 wells, some in the herd’s calving area. The government also built the Dempster Highway which runs directly through the calving and migratory area. The Canadian Gwich’in have never protested any of these actions. When the drilling found no economic hydrocarbons the Government designated the area adjacent to ANWR a National Park and declared its opposition to any development on the ANWR coastal plain. At the same time Canada continues to explore offshore in the Beaufort Sea and periodically requests from Alaska information on tanker routes from the Mackenzie Delta across northern Alaska and into the Pacific! So much for responsible concern for the arctic environment.

Fact 30 -All the familiar players such as the Sierra Club, Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation, Friends of the Earth, etc., are passionately opposed to producing oil from the coastal plain. They all raise millions of dollars with emotional appeals to save the arctic caribou, and describe the area as “the Serengeti of the North”, or “the Crown Jewels of the Arctic”, or “America’s Last Wilderness”, or “the last complete untouched arctic ecosystem”. These rhetorical statements are devoid of reality and are used shamelessly to raise funds from people who usually have never been to Alaska and know little about it.

Fact 31 -The environmentalists refer to caribou as “endangered”, when they know perfectly well that there are more caribou in Alaska than there are Alaskan people. Furthermore, the caribou are thriving, even those that live in the oil fields.

Fact 32 -The Gwich’in of Arctic Village are the most vocal opponents against ANWR development. They call themselves “the caribou people” and subsist off of caribou from the Porcupine Caribou Herd which migrates through ANWR and neighboring parts of Canada. About 140 Gwich’in live in Arctic Village which is 125 miles south of the coastal plain and separated from it by the Brooks Range. The Gwich’in have organized themselves into a Gwich’in Steering Committee which is a white dominated organization based in Anchorage. It represents about 15 Athabaskan Villages in Alaska and Canada. The Group is funded by environmental foundations and the Environmental Organizations.

Fact 33 -The Gwich’in of Arctic Village harvest about 350 caribou a year and the total annual native subsistence take is approximately 3000 animals. Most of those are killed in Canada and they represent a small proportion of the 160,000 Porcupine Caribou Herd.

Fact 34 -Kaktovik Inupiats who also harvest caribou and observe them on the coastal plain and believe they will not be harmed.

Fact 35 -The Gwich’in claim that drilling on the coastal plain will destroy the caribou herd because it often uses part of the coastal plain as its main birthing ground. The Gwich’in ignore the opinion of the Fact 15 – In the 1970’s the Alaskan Gwich’in were fully supportive of oil exploration on their own lands through which the herd migrates. They offered leases to the oil industry covering their entire reserve area. In the early 70’s Exxon carried out seismic work in the area before giving it up. In 1977 village leaders went to BP Alaska Exploration to execute an agreement for exploration and several surveys were carried out. In 1980 the Rougeot Corporation of Tulsa Oklahoma leased 1.5 million acres and paid several million dollars in lease fees. The lease agreement contained no provisions to protect the Porcupine Caribou Herd. All these ventures came to naught, but the Gwich’in were still preparing new lease maps in 1984. They argue now that exploration activity would not affect the herd, albeit they hoped for eventual production, not exploration. This position is very different from their beliefs today.

Fact 36 -There are several other reasons the coastal plain is distinct from the rest of the ANWR. It is not part of the hills and mountains of the Brooks Range, where the environmentalists take their beautiful photos of the ANWR. It is a flat, treeless, almost featureless plain in northeastern Alaska that extends from the Brooks Range northward to the Beaufort Sea. There are times on the coastal plain when exposing human flesh to the elements would ensure death. The temperature can drop to -40 degrees Fahrenheit in January. Few animals can thrive in those temperatures. Only five species of birds, some polar bears (who den on the Beaufort Sea pack ice) and lemmings (who burrow beneath the snow-pack) remain during the winter months. There are 56 days of total darkness during the year, and almost nine months of harsh winter. The caribou travel to the coastal plain from Canada, passing near 89 dry wells drilled by the Canadian government and crossing Canada’s Dempster Highway–all of which seems to be development that does not hinder their migration or survival.

Fact 37 -Our only experiment with oil fields and caribou has taken place nearby on Alaska’s North Slope in Prudhoe Bay. The Central Arctic caribou herd that inhabits part of Prudhoe Bay has grown from 6,000 in 1978 to 19,700 today, according to the most recent estimates by state and federal wildlife agencies.

Fact 38 -There is some evidence that the caribou use un-vegetated and elevated sites such as river bars, mud flats, dunes, gravel pads and roads in the existing oil fields as relief habitat from mosquitoes and from oestrid flies that attack their nostrils.

Fact 39 -Environmentalists also worry about the polar bear, though most biologists will tell you that the bears rarely den on land in this region, preferring the arctic ice. Alaska’s polar bear population is healthy and unthreatened. The Marine Mammals Protection Act takes care of the polar bear in the existing oil fields–and would do the same on the coastal plain.

Fact 40 -The protections and how they relate to oil workers…They are not allowed to harm a polar bear. There are steel cages around many of the doors of the facilities in Prudhoe. That way, workers can look off into the distance for bears before they venture out. No polar bear has been injured or killed as a result of extracting oil in Prudhoe Bay.

Fact 41 -Exploration and development is done in the harsh winter months, which allows the use of ice airstrips, ice roads and ice platforms. It is done when no caribou are present.

Fact 42 -The North Slope’s petroleum industry is the cleanest, most technologically advanced and most heavily regulated in the world. Facilities are designed for minimal environmental impact.

Fact 43 -The North Slope oil fields currently provide the U.S. with nearly 25% of it’s domestic production and since 1988 this production has been on the decline. Peak production was reached in 1980 of two million barrels a day, but has been declining to a current level of 1.4 million barrels a day.

Fact 44 -The presently producing oil fields at Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope have cost in excess of $50 billion to build and maintain. Of that considerable sum of money fully 85% was spent outside of Alaska for goods and services from companies all across the nation. Those expenditures have created American jobs and benefited America’s economy.

Fact 45 – When Prudhoe Bay was developed in the 1970’s, about 2 % of the surface area over the field, or 5,000 acres, was covered by gravel for roads and drilling and production facility sites. If Prudhoe Bay were developed today, using lessons learned since the 1960’s, gravel would cover less than 2,000 acres, a 60 % reduction.

Fact 46 -Instead of building a gravel pad for exploration drilling, companies are now building temporary pads of ice, which disappear after the exploration well has been drilled. Temporary ice roads have long been used to support winter exploration drilling on the North Slope.

ABC’s Political Punch this morning:

In a web video to supporters — “the people who built this movement from the bottom up” — Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, announced this morning that he will not enter into the public financing system, despite a previous pledge to do so.

“We’ve made the decision not to participate in the public financing system for the general election,” Obama says in the video, blaming it on the need to combat Republicans, saying “we face opponents who’ve become masters at gaming this broken system. John McCain’s campaign and the Republican National Committee are fueled by contributions from Washington lobbyists and special interest PACs. And we’ve already seen that he’s not going to stop the smears and attacks from his allies running so-called 527 groups, who will spend millions and millions of dollars in unlimited donations.”

So far, no comment from ‘Common Cause”, whose questions Obama took the time to answer this way, not so very long ago:

If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?

OBAMA: Yes. I have been a long-time advocate for public financing of campaigns combined with free television and radio time as a way to reduce the influence of moneyed special interests. I introduced public financing legislation in the Illinois State Senate, and am the only 2008 candidate to have sponsored Senator Russ Feingold’s (D-WI) bill to reform the presidential public financing system. In February 2007, I proposed a novel way to preserve the strength of the public financing system in the 2008 election. My plan requires both major party candidates to agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election. My proposal followed announcements by some presidential candidates that they would forgo public financing so they could raise unlimited funds in the general election. The Federal Election Commission ruled the proposal legal, and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has already pledged to accept this fundraising pledge. If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.

Apparently, given the announcement this monring, Obama’s answer here depends on the meaning of the word “Yes”. Then again, this was totally predictable… and we did, when McCain Finegold first came up, AND when McCain decided he was going to stand by his monster… that the Democrats would never keep their end of the deal, and thereby any Republican that did was committing electoral suicide.

 Guess who called this one?

Again.

Congressman Maurice Hinchey(D-NY), want to natinnalize domeestic oil refineries(industry?), via Beldar Blog:

So if there’s any seriousness about what some of our Republican colleagues are saying here in the House and elsewhere about improving the number of refineries, then maybe they’d be willing to have these refineries owned publicly —  owned by the people of the United States. So that the people of the United States can determine how much of the product is refined and put out on the market. To me, that sounds like a very good idea.

The ‘rats are not content to raise energy prices by restricting domestic oil porduction.  Now they want to nationize oil refineries, so that they can further reduce production.  When Hinchey says control oil production he only means to decrease it   The ‘rats standard bearer, leader and party boss Barack Obama, has already said that gasoline prices are too low.  The ‘rats want to control the refineries as means of increasing the price you pay at the pump.

Addendum: (Bit) And thus does the long standing argument that the Democrats are not sumply mislabled socialists, die the death it so richly deserves…. as if the similar move on healthcare and rail transportation wasn’t enough to convince folks.

The left side of the ‘shepere is all over the story of Larry Sinclair being arrested following his apearence at the National Press Club, yesterday. Blogger News Network says:

Larry Sinclair-the gay man who’s accused Senator Barack Obama of sharing gay sex and drugs with him in a Gurnee, IL hotel room in 1999-held a press conference at the National Press Club today.

He began the press conference by handing out press packets which contained little new information. He ended up his DC appearance in handcuffs, led away by the DC Police.

He’s currently being held by the DC Police, according to Larry Sinclair Arrested at NPC Press Conference; UPDATE.

[UPDATE at 6:53: Sinclair was arrested by DC Police after 2 US Marshals showed up and presented a warrant from the State of Delaware for Sinclair’s arrest. Montgomery Blair Sibley, who’s had his law license suspended by the District of Columbia and Florida, and who was previously Sinclair’s attorney, reviewed the warrant and then Sinclair was led away.]

Speculation is that the arrest stemmed from a Delaware warrant, although there is also an outstanding felony warrant out for Sinclair from the Pueblo County (CO) Sheriff’s Department.

Yet, there has been no announcement of the specific charges involved. No indication what he’s been arrested for. Interesting that the left side dances jigs over Sinclair’s being arrested, apparently for saying something  about Barack Obama, with no concern whatever about the specific charges.  THta last point is apparently no big deal to the left.

Wasn’t it just last week we were told that the Taiban and AlQuieda thugs being held in Cuba had that right?  Yet Sinclair, they put up no such defense for, so long as their purposes are served. This Sinclair guy must have done something really bad, huh?

Yep. He dissed a Democrat. He said things that made Obama look less attractive to voters.

OK, the guy may very well be a nutcase. Then again, perhaps not. But the point I’m making is the differences in reaction from the left… they are quite are revealing, I think.

OK, here’s story number one, by way of Michelle:

(06-17) 19:07 PDT TURLOCK (STANISLAUS COUNTY) — The town of Turlock and much of the rest of the nation was shocked when a 27-year-old man beat and stomped his 2-year-old son to death on a rural road. But what was nearly as stunning for many people was that none of the motorists and their passengers who stopped and saw the attack tried to tackle the man.

Then, we have story number two, from Canada, offered up by Bruce McQuain:

First we have “hate speech” taking precedence over free speech.  And now we have at least one court deciding that it has the right to overrule a father’s discipline:

An appeal will be filed in a Montreal court after a Quebec judge overruled a father who grounded his 12-year-old daughter for dangerous Internet use.
T
The lawyer for the father, who can’t be identified to protect the girl, told The Gazette newspaper that Justice Suzanne Tessier overstepped the court’s bounds last Friday when she ruled in favor of the girl’s legal challenge and said she would be allowed to go on a school trip her father had forbidden because of misbehavior.

This is simply insane.

Yep.
And I’d be hard pressed to tell you which is moreso.

But you know what? In both cases, these extremes can be laid at the feet of government and the power of the lawsuit.

Fox News:

For the second day in a row, gas prices nation wide have ticked down. The decrease isn’t much, but it’s enough to give motorists hope that more could be on the horizon.

The average per-gallon price stands at $4.075 for regular unleaded, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report. This is down from an all-time high of $4.080 on Monday, June 16.

By midsummer, I said. Remember?

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Dancer and actress Cyd Charisse, whose legs were insured for a million dollars in the heyday of the Hollywood musical, died at her home in Los Angeles on Tuesday, her agent said. She was 87.

Scott Stander said Charisse, a regular partner of legends Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, suffered a heart attack at her home and “never recovered.” She died at 12.15 am (0715 GMT).

“We’re all just heartbroken,” said Stander, describing Charisse as “one of the classiest ladies you would have ever met.”

She’s one I wish I’d had the chance to meet, from all the descrtiptions I’ve heard of her.

And  87? That kind of longevity would seem to make a good argument for the kind of shape she must have been in all her life.

• One of these days I’ve really gotta send Gaius over at Blue Crab Blvd a six-pack, just on G.P.. (Do beings that walk sideways drink beer? OK, dumb question. Depends how much they’ve had. Gotcha.)  The guy’s out there slugging away… even into stuff in my own backyard that I’d missed… they’ve managed to find the HMS Ontario just down the road here. Actually, I had heard it was somewhere between the port of Rochester and Niagara but didn’t get the details.   Apparently they managed to find her in around 500ft of water, mostly intact. National Georgraphic has picked up the story, too, which is where I got this photo from. Go and see.  She was coming from NIagara to Rochester, and never made it in.  They’re not saying where the thing is, (Not that many could do much at that depth, anyway) My guess, given the depth they’re talking about is off 30 mile point.
• So Science type are now saying our DNA did come from off-planet. Bruce has a few comments there. Personally, I think I can hear the Darwinian choir warming up just offstage.
• I see Obama is calling for an end to references to candidate’s spouses.  Apparently, Obama doesn’t want to have to toss his wife under the bus with everyone else.

• McGehee says:
  

  I’m starting to think Bill Engvall was wrong. We don?t need for stupid people to carry signs warning us who they are. We need for people who do actually have two working brain cells to rub together, to carry signs letting us know they?re not stupid.

  Well, yeah, but see…if you think you can trust signs, consider election signs put out by Democrats. Consider that 14ft nothing clearance sign on the bridge from hell… you know, the one with all the dents in it.

• I should have seen it coming. Obama’s complaint against absentee black fathers was one of the few things he’s done right. ; Earl Ofari Hutchinson over at Pajamas Media tells Obama to lay off black fathers.. it’s all an inaccurate stereotype, says he.  Actually, I think it more accurate than popular. Truth is a great leveler, and in this case, Obama was speaking the truth, but I wonder if he hasn’t just annoyed about half the black vote, which until now was considered a lock for him?

Just how stupid is Barack “BO” Obama?, via John Brody, Brody FilesL

“This is unfortunately become a habit in our politics where anything’s fair game, and we just make things up about people. If you think about Michelle, I mean here’s somebody who’s done everything right. She grew up in modest means. She grew up in a nuclear family. Her parents looked after her. She went to college on a scholarship. She’s worked hard for everything that she has.

She is the best mother I know. She has made repeated sacrifices on behalf of her family and has said that her children and her husband are her number one priority.

So the fact that people have tried to make her a target, based essentially on a couple of comments in which she was critical of what’s happening to our American dream and the enormous difficulties that people are experiencing — the difficulties that she hears directly as she is traveling across the country, I think is really distressing. And you know I’ve said publicly before, and I’ll say it again – I think families are off limits. I would never consider making Cindy McCain a campaign issue, and if I saw people doing that – I would speak out against it. And the fact that I haven’t seen that from John McCain I think is a deep disappointment

While BO was bemoaning John McCain’s failure to defend Michelle, BO’s paiid employee and flunkee, Howard Dean was attacking Cindy McCain.   The McCain campaign, via Brody File:

“Senator McCain agrees with Senator Obama that spouses should not be an issue in this campaign, and he has stated that position frequently. Unfortunately, when the DNC was attacking Mrs. McCain, Senator Obama was not strong enough to stand up and speak out against the outrageous charges leveled at her by his party chair, Howard Dean. Obama’s silence speaks volumes, and it’s unfortunate that he would single out others for a standard he himself has failed to live up to.”

BO before you utter another word about the McCain campaign not defending attacks on your missus, you get Howie, that is Howard Dean, your paid employet, to STFU.

BO as to your comment, that on your missus:

She is the best mother I know.

So BO, just how many mothers do you know?   Further what kind of character reference are you giving your wife, when Jerimiah Wright was the best minister you ever knew, Tony Resko the best land developer and Bill Ayers the best domestic terrorist turned college professor?  BO your character judgment just plain stinks.

Addendum:(Bit):

What this all boils down to is Obama doesn’t give a damn about not attacking wives in general, or even his own wife, particularly.  What this is about is, Obama’s getting nervous. He doesn’t want to have to toss his wife under the bus with the rest of the people that stand between him and the White House. which if his wife keeps getting put under the Kleig lights this way, is what will undoubtedly happen.

So, President Bush has now joined John McCain’s call to eliminate the federal ban on offshore oil drilling. He’s even asked Congress to do so. This strikes me as a smart move, both in the political world, and the real one.

Obama is now in the position, along with congressional Democrats,  of explaining why voters are paying over $4/gallon while he tries to keep the federal bans on getting more oil to market, which would have the effect of lowering costs to those voters.  Smart move.

Surber does this one as well as anyone I’ve seen today:

Bush to Democrats: Drill or say hello to a Republican Congress.

Here is the price Americans are paying for pristine coastlines: $4 a gallon for gasoline and $5 for a box of cereal.

President Bush wants to end this nonsense.

Drill.

Me at OTB just now:

Is there a a pair of braincells left in working order within the AP?

(Shrug) No matter. You see, the bloggers are the 600lb Gorilla, and it’s time the AP figured that one out.

So, AP, welcome to the school of Bithead.

As of right now, and going forward until AP backs down from this idiocy, AP is no longer a trusted source at BitsBlog. They will not be linked at all, or mentioned in this blog. So far as we are concerned, they no longer exist.

No longer will BitsBlog readers follow links from here to AP sources, as happened several hundred times daily until now. No more free rides for you, AP, and truth to tell that’s what you were getting from Bitsblog and thousands like BitsBlog every single day.

Oh, I know… this blog is not central to any movement.  Alone, I suppose there would be little effect on the AP from this edict,  save the snickering. But I am far from alone, AP,  and you’re about to figure that one out. I hope you survive the drop in traffic, but that’s kinda up to you, isn’t it?

Addendum: Michelle Malkin has a novel idea, and we’re looking at it. And I’m not so sure about the “tounge in cheek” part, Michelle. This “policy” of AP’s  makes it clear that the dollar sign is all they see. Well? Seems great way to put serious teeth in our position, since it’s the one thing they seem to understand.