OBAMA SELLOUT

Anger! Shock! Dismay! Rage! Pick a word in any of those categories and it is how I feel hearing Mr. Obama capped off his five day holiday in South America by announcing a sweetheart oil drilling deal for Petrobras, the Brazilian national oil company. American tax dollars - two-billion of those hard earned dollars - will be loaned to Petrobras by the American Export-Import Bank to help finance a floating oil drilling and storage rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Our federal Environmental Protection Agency quietly approved the permit even before the Obamas took flight for their South American fling. Yes, it is the very same EPA that refuses to issue permits to American drillers to drill for oil in the Gulf, and put unemployed Americans back to work, particularly those workers who lost their jobs when Obama banned deep water drilling following the BP oil disaster. What pumps my blood pressure even higher is learning most of the members of the American Export-Import Bank were appointed by Republican George W. Bush. Maybe we American taxpayers should demand board members of that bank make public their tax returns. Oh! There is also the George Soros element. It seems there is always a Soros connection where Obama is concerned. The billionaire Obama supporter holds 5.8-million shares of Petrobras through his New York based hedge fund. Just coincidence? Sorry, I don't believe in coincidence where politics and big money converge. Congress should act immediately. Block the loan. Defund all departments of the EPA that have any say in issuing drilling permits until the EPA secretary agrees to start drilling for oil, not only in the Gulf, but in Anwar, North Dakota and anywhere else on American soil where it is viable to drill for oil. And Congress should require that any oil extracted under American permits be drilled by American companies, employing only American workers and used only for domestic consumption. Not one barrel should be sold on the world oil market which is manipulated by OPEC, the Arab-dominated oil alliance. OPEC and speculators have hugely inflated oil prices. And Americans are paying big time at the pump for this corruption. Congress has the power of the purse. That gives it the power to right this wrong, and for a change, look out for the people who pay in the bucks to fill that purse.

OUTRAGE FROM A MADMAN

Only from the mouth of Mahmoud Ahmadinejab could such outrage pour forth and only at the podium of the United Nations - that the attack on 9/11 was an American plot cooked up to protect the Zionist regime (that's Iranian jargon for Israel).
The American delegation walked out. It would have been far more appropriate for that delegation to have boycotted Ahmadinejab in the first place. The Iranian president's diatribe came only hours after President Obama stood at the same podium calling for talks with the likes of the Iranian madman.
We have been trying to talk to Tehran for years to no avail. Trying to do so now only makes us look more diminished and weak in the world's view.
What we should do is move the United Nations off American soil so that never do we have to allow such vermin into our country again. And after relocating the United Nations, let's take a looooong look at how much financial support we provide and perhaps consider cutting back a bit. Or maybe withdrawing entirely from the so-called world body.
What is the cost benefit of our membership in the U.N.? It is a question that our next congress and our next president should consider.
Another point on Obama at the United Nations today. He claimed with a straight face that America's response to the economic crisis two years ago, which plunged most of the industrialized world into recession, saved several billion jobs.
What?
I would like to see some facts, maybe evidence even, that backs up that statement. If it exists, it has been the best kept secret in the country; maybe the world.
American taxpayers shelled out nearly a billion dollars for the stimulus plan to nowhere that did little to cut into our own high unemployment, let alone solve that problem for the world.
Me thinks that the Obama speechwriter doth exaggerate.

AMNESTY AGAIN?

Interesting how much of what Barach Obama had to say about illegal immigration is what we all heard from his predecessor - and vociferously rejected. So vociferous was the opposition to amnesty for illegal aliens that even Senator John McCain, a leading voice for the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, which included amnesty for 11-million or so illegals (but who's counting), finally cried uncle and dropped his support.
As usual, Obama was long on rhetoric and short on specifics. No mention of building high fences. No mention of sending the military to the border. No need. Obama proclaimed the border with Mexico is safer than it has ever been.
Really, Mr. President! You might want to schedule a nose reduction job after that statement.
Especially after nearly two-dozen people were killed the very next day in a shoot-out between rival drug and human smuggling gangs in Nogales, Mexico, just 12 miles from the Arizona border.
Despite threats of federal lawsuits and economic boycotts, Arizona and its feisty governor, Jan Brewer, are not bowing to intimidation and are forging ahead with enforcing illegal immigration laws that Obama and his administration refuse to enforce.
Arizona's neighbor to the east, New Mexico, seems impervious to all the border violence and drain on its state coffers by illegal immigration. Under the leadership of Democrat Gov. Bill Richardson, a Hispanic and himself an anchor baby, New Mexico issues drivers licenses to undocumented aliens. Better yet, the state awards college scholarships to the children of those illegal aliens.
Now that's the way to secure the Hispanic vote! I wonder if any of those licensed-to-drive and well educated illegals cast ballots? Just wondering!
And Richardson is doing all this for illegal aliens despite a 76-million dollar shortfall in state revenues, according to The New Mexico Independent. But not to worry, New Mexicans! The good governor is counting on 200-million in federal stimulus dollars to make everything fiscally right in the budget year that just began.
I would like to earmark my tax dollars going to New Mexico. Do not use them for supporting the agency that issues drivers licenses to illegals and the universities that give free rides to illegals.

SOLVING THE GULF COAST CRISIS

The merciful thing about President Obama's Oval Office speech Tuesday night...it was short. It was filled with the usual platitudes but sadly, minus any meaningful plan. So America's Riviera will continue to be despoiled by oil.
That oil should never have reached the fragile Louisiana marshes. And never the pristine beaches that wrap America's southeastern border in a sandy ribbon.
Obama could have accepted the help extended immediately after the oil rig explosion by England, Holland, Norway and other European countries to send large ships equipped to suck up the thick sludge formed by the oil gushing from 5000 feet below the Gulf, 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana.
Even last night - 57 days into the worst environmental crisis in this nation's history - Obama stood by his union supporters and refused to waive the 1920 Jones Act which bans any ship not made in America, with an American crew on board, from performing such duties as keeping oil from reaching American shores.
Since America now accounts for only one percent of the world's shipbuilding, it is unlikely there would be enough American-made ships available for such duty.
And the oil continues to gush from the deep.
Evoking his familiar stern demeanor, Obama demanded BP put billions in a fund to pay for damage to the Gulf Coast and the people who make their livelihood from its natural beauty and bounty. The President even demands BP pay oil workers idled by his ill advised moratorium on deep water drilling that has idled 40-plus rigs in the Gulf.
What! I would like to see how a fair minded judge rules on that one.
And there is another problem with your escrow plan Mr. President. BP may be having money troubles. It reportedly is seeking a several billion dollar line of credit from European banks. Yes, it was a highly profitable oil company. But the crisis in the Gulf and Obama's constant vilifying of the oil company has sent its stock tumbling by more than half. A better strategy might be to work with BP and help maintain its financial viability. Keeping vitriolic pressure on BP could force it to seek bankruptcy protection. Then who pays, Mr. President. And what about the 12,000 BP service stations in America; and the 31,000-plus employees in America.
Under American law, BP is legally responsible for only 75,000,000 in damages. BP has publicly promised to pay for the damages to the Gulf Coast and in the words of its CEO, "make things right."
If BP gets its back up because of Obama's rails and threats, it could force the matter into the courts and that could leave the people of the Gulf Coast hanging financially for years.
What should Obama have done?
Waive the Jones Act and get those European skimmers over here immediately to keep more oil from reaching coastlines.
Lift the moratorium on deep water off-shore drilling. Put oil workers back to work and the businesses on shore that supply those 40-plus rigs back in business. Send federal inspectors to each rig to assess any safety or environmental issues and fix problems immediately - but keep the oil pumping and workers working.
Scrap Cap and Trade. It is a scam. Instead, take a hard look at a proposal from Senator's Lieberman and Kerry that would make natural gas the fuel of choice to power our vehicles and power plants. It is abundant and easier to find. And is often burned off at oil well drill sites. Capture that natural gas and it could replace the oil.
Open Anwar to oil and natural gas drilling now. Some engineers have said oil could be flowing to the lower 48 within six months to a year. Thousands of American workers would be back on payrolls and many of those workers would carry union cards, Mr. President. And both the Alaskan and Federal governments would reap windfall taxes from the oil flowing out of Anwar. Of course, that would go against the environmental lobby. And that would require political courage from a President who has so far been devoid of any such courage.
Instead of appointing another expensive and useless commission to look into the Gulf Coast crisis, bring the best engineering and inventive minds in America together to formulate an energy plan that would once and for all free this nation from its dependence on imported oil. President Kennedy took that route in the space race in the 1960's and in less than a decade we overtook the Soviet Union and landed a man on the moon.
Left to their own resources, with financial help from BP and the federal government, the people of the Gulf Coast and their governors will solve their own problems. They've already shown their fellow Americans what they can do in the face of this disaster.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal called for the federal government and its cumbersome bureaucracy to "get out of the way" early on in the crisis. Why do I think things on day 58 would be much better had those in the White House listened to Jindal.

HOW LOW CAN WE GO

Yesterday's appearance by Mexican President Felipe Calderon before a joint session of Congress should be an affront to every thinking American. Which may explain why the Democrat side of the aisle leaped to its collective feet in exuberant applause after Calderon parroted President Obama and asserted the new Arizona illegal immigration law would violate civil rights of Mexicans in that state illegally.
Republicans should have acted like thinking Americans and walked out. Instead, they held their applause, but remained fixed in their seats. Which is unfortunate.
Calderon also claimed that America must share the blame for the drug violence on the Mexican-American border and admonished Congress for not passing a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
Whoa, Amigo! We don't need your advice on American domestic policy.
I would love to know which group of Obama speech writers wrote the words that were spouted by this leader of a chronic third world country that, despite having big income from its rich oil resources, remains mired in violence and corruption, and its people remain mired in poverty.
El Presidente Calderon apparently hasn't read the Arizona law either, an oversight he shares with Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano.
Both Obama cabinet officials have denounced the Arizona bill as a civil rights violation waiting to happen. Holder even huffed and puffed about filing suit against the Arizona law on grounds it violates the U. S. Constitution
What Obama, Holder, Napolitano and Calderon all appear ignorant of is a 1975 Supreme Court decision which ruled under federal immigration law police can demand to see the identification of anyone, whether or not that person is stopped for reasonable suspicion, a small civil rights protection tucked into the Arizona law, but not required in federal law.
There is only one reason the White House red carpet was rolled out for Calderon. Votes! Obama is trying to impress Latino voters in this country by hosting a state dinner for the Calderon's and giving the Mexican President the ultimate platform of a joint session of Congress which he used to insult this nation.
I hope another traditional Democrat block vote was taking note - American Jews. Obama went out of his ill-mannered way to snub the Prime Minister of Israel recently, the leader of a progressive and productive nation and our only reliable middle eastern ally.
There is something very wrong with this foreign policy picture.

NEGLECTING NASHVILLE

With horror and dismay I have watched television coverage of the record flooding that inundated Nashville and much of middle Tennessee.
For 17 years I lived just south of Nashville in Franklin, which itself has suffered record flooding. What I have not seen in any of the coverage I've watched is President Obama stepping up to the familiar podium, flanked by teleprompters, to express compassion for the people of Nashville. Oh, the President has been to the podium several times since nearly two feet of rain fell on Nashville, but nary a word for that beleaguered city or its people...not a word of condolence for the 28 lives claimed by the deluge...not a word of compassion for the hundreds of homes and businesses lost to the flood waters, which left behind an estimated billion dollars in damage as they finally began receding.
I find Obama's lack of compassion, his lack of even a casual display of empathy for Nashvillians deplorable.
What I saw and read made me realize that Barach Obama's words were not needed to lift the spirits of those who have lost so much.
When up to ten feet of water inundated the Grand Ole Opry House, the show went on as scheduled at a higher, dryer venue in downtown Nashville, the old Memorial Auditorium and then the Ryman Auditorium, the historic mother church of the fabled country music show.
Grand Ole Opry veteran Jeannie Seely was one of the regulars who performed in that first show Tuesday at the new venue. Seely lost her own home to the floods and the Associated Press reported she had to perform in borrowed shoes. But perform she did.
At the end of that first show, as the flood waters were still swirling through the new Opry house, Seely joined hands with her fellow performers and sang the old Christian song, "Will the Circle be Unbroken."
Not by the Jeannie Seely's of this world.

THE GHOST OF KEYNES

Is Barach Obama channeling John Maynard Keynes? One might reach this conclusion given the economic state of America and the European Union and what is unfolding during this current economic crisis.
Keynes espoused a basic economic theory that made the state dominate over the private sector. It is certainly the direction the British economist saw his own country heading at the time of his death in 1946. And it is the direction the United States is heading under policies being put in place by both the President and the Democrat Congress, ie. healthcare reform.
Europe has been a poster child for Keynesian economic theory - high taxes in return for cradle-to-grave social programs including state run healthcare, subsidized housing, childcare, retirement, wage controls, etc. In theory, Keynesian economics is utopian. In practice, it is proving ruinous for those who espouse it over a free market economy.
Greece is only the first of many Keynesian-like socialized countries to go broke. Greek debt is 115% of its gross national product. By contrast, America's debt is 25% of GDP, but growing rapidly - too rapidly.
And who will save Greece? The International Monetary Fund, the brainchild of John Maynard Keynes and American economist Harry Dexter White.
Who is the biggest contributor to the IMF? Three guesses, and the first two don't count - the United States. American taxpayers are on the hook for up to $39-billion of the $140-billion needed to underwrite Greek debt and save that country from bankruptcy.
Is Barach Obama clairvoyant? Did he see the fiscal crisis in Europe coming. Maybe, because he generously pledged $100-billion to the IMF during one of his several trips to Europe last year.
Just one small problem. America is broke, thanks to 9/11, the war on terror, reckless spending by both Republican and Democrat administrations and the unfunded mandates of social security, medicare, medicade, prescription coverage and now healthcare.
Just to pay the $39-billion to bail out Greece, the Federal Reserve will have to print more money. There is no money in our government bank upon which to draw.
We cannot afford to bail out Greece. And we should withdraw from the International Monetary Fund. We, the taxpayers of the United States, fund nearly 18% of the IMF, but have never benefited from our membership.
The IMF was intended to help emerging countries establish markets and oversee the world's currencies, not bail out nations like Greece that accumulate huge debt because of excessive labor union demands, social programs and a retirement age of 53.
Unfortunately, much of what the IMF has done is bailout profligate countries.
The U. S. has a Department of Treasury and a Federal Reserve to oversee our financial markets and our monetary system; and a Department of Commerce to oversee international trade agreements and domestic markets.
One irony in the Greek financial debacle - the IMF has demanded Greece privatize healthcare as part of the rigorous austerity measures enacted by the Greek Parliament in return for bail out money.
NO MORE BAILOUTS BY AMERICAN TAXPAYERS - NOT HERE - NOT ELSEWHERE.