| Another case of buyer's remorse |
[Jun. 23rd, 2010|09:38 am] |
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Heh, so apparently McChrystal has told people that he voted for Obama. If it weren't for the soldiers' lives at stake, that would make this situation pretty funny. |
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| Congrats to McChrystal for saying what's what |
[Jun. 22nd, 2010|10:46 am] |
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And don't tell me about respect for the proper dignity and humility of his office, or that he is supposed to serve "at the pleasure of the President", or any other such bullshit. Likewise, it is the President's solemn duty to serve "at the pleasure of the people", and McChrystal is under no more obligation to respect the proper scope and conduct of his office, and his duties to the President, than than the President is to recognize the proper scope of his and his duties to the people. Respect is a two-way street, and a lawless, egomaniacal President cannot expect lawful, obedient subjects. |
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| BP = "Barack's Pals" |
[Jun. 22nd, 2010|09:50 am] |
I like it.
That Obama's Undersecretary of Energy for Science was BP's chief scientist for four years, and led up their sham "green energy" program, that I don't like so much.
Actually, BP is the ideal poster-boy for the "green" Left. More than any other company, they've been at the forefront of pushing the "green" agenda, and are one of the originators and main hawks of the whole cap and trade idea. Until the spill, they were darlings of the Left, showering the Democrats with money and policy support. Of course, as is now obvious to everyone, their supposed concern for the environment was all a big public farce, designed only to enrich themselves through subsidies and political influence at the expense of every taxpaying American - kind of like Al Gore with his private jets and his lavish 10,000 sq ft energy-hog mansion. In fact, BP is basically a giant Al Gore.
Well, okay, Al Gore is basically a giant Al Gore these days, but you get what I mean... |
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| Compare and contrast |
[Jun. 21st, 2010|04:47 pm] |
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I liked this summary from Vince Haley:
Jay Leno gave voice to the widespread puzzlement over this misplaced focus: “President Obama said today he is going to use the Gulf disaster to immediately push a new energy bill through Congress. I got an idea. . . . How about first using the Gulf disaster to fix the Gulf disaster?”
President Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, said at the start of the Obama presidency that “you never let a crisis go to waste.” We now know that this means the Obama team never lets a crisis go without more borrowing, more taxing, and more spending on their political allies. We saw this with the $862 billion stimulus law that didn’t create jobs, the Obamacare law that won’t bend the health cost curve down, and now with an energy proposal that won’t lower costs and won’t increase supply.
The proposal, which Obama is urging upon the Senate, is for cap-and-trade energy taxes. It has nothing to do with plugging the hole, but Obama and his liberal allies in Congress want the power to spend billions in new tax revenues on a massive redistribution of wealth to green-energy-company shareholders....
Obama’s plan will inflict higher gas and electricity costs on everyone. It will kill hundreds of thousands of jobs and prevent small-business growth. It is especially foolish to contemplate a massive new tax in the midst of a recession, but President Obama’s central purpose is less economic than ideological: the redistribution of wealth, come what may.
Contrast the straight-forward clarity on display in the clip of Chris Christie, that I linked to in my last post, to Obama's style of governing. His approach to every crisis, real or engineered, has been a bait-and-switch in which he attempts to exploit the fear caused by the problem at hand to force completely unrelated legislation on to the American people that they do not want. And usually, as with this oil spill, he addresses the actual problem at hand only half-heartedly or not at all.
What does that tell you about a leader's compassion and concern for the well-being of his people, that he sees their suffering not as an motivator to address the problem at hand, but as a cynical opportunity to further control them and force his ideology on them, in ways that will harm them even further?
And what does it tell you about his honesty, about his moral fitness to lead, that the first (and only) tool in his arsenal is not reasoned persuasion, nor statesmanship, but deception and heavy-handedness?
Even if you're on the same political side of the aisle as Obama, and voted for him, what does his behavior tell you about him, both as a leader and as a human being? |
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| More Chris Christie |
[Jun. 21st, 2010|11:53 am] |
Every time I see this guy talk, I'm blown away all over again:
The word that comes to mind when I hear him is "clarity" - both intellectual and moral. That degree of plain-spoken and yet eloquent clarity is rare to see in any person, much less a politician. In a political world more beset by shallow, self-promoting hype and false messiahs than ever, it's refreshing to witness a man who isn't self-promoting, doesn't misrepresent himself or pull any bait-n-switches on the public, and doesn't invite us to deceive ourselves by engaging in willful suspension of disbelief over his supposedly messianic abilities, but simply states his case and speaks to what we all know deep down by reason with razor-sharp clarity. |
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| If you want something done right.... |
[Jun. 18th, 2010|10:56 am] |
Here's what the competent people are doing while the federal government does it's damndest to be an obstructive nuisance:
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| I repeat: There Is **NO** problem too big for the government to make worse. |
[Jun. 18th, 2010|09:32 am] |
Government regulations strike again:
Sixteen barges sat stationary today, although they were sucking up thousands of gallons of BP's oil as recently as Tuesday. Workers in hazmat suits and gas masks pumped the oil out of the Louisiana waters and into steel tanks. It was a homegrown idea that seemed to be effective at collecting the thick gunk. "These barges work. You've seen them work. You've seen them suck oil out of the water," said Jindal....
But the Coast Guard ordered the stoppage because of reasons that Jindal found frustrating. The Coast Guard needed to confirm that there were fire extinguishers and life vests on board, and then it had trouble contacting the people who built the barges. If your response to this is to think that everything from your health care to carbon rationing should be handed over to bureaucratic management, you may just be too stupid to live. Oh, and who's in charge of the Coast Guard? Why, I believe that would be Obama! As I pointed out in the last entry, he was right about his administration being involved since day one. It's just that their involvement has consisted entirely of inhibiting the cleanup through red tape and incompetent regulation. The best thing Obama could do for the Gulf right now is to just get the hell out of the way of the competent people like Jindal and tell his subordinates to do the same.
Update:
I like Vox Day's comment on the situation:
Doing nothing is to be vastly preferred to actively working to prevent others from fixing the problem. You have to feel sympathy for those poor state and local officials who have been waiting for two months for the federal agents to ride in and salvage the situation, only to discover that the cavalry is fighting on the side of the Indians. |
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| There's no problem too big for the US Government... to make worse |
[Jun. 17th, 2010|01:39 pm] |
From the Examiner:
The U.S. Government has apparently reconsidered a Dutch offer to supply 4 oil skimmers. These are large arms that are attached to oil tankers that pump oil and water from the surface of the ocean into the tanker. Water pumped into the tanker will settle to the bottom of the tanker and is then pumped back into the ocean to make room for more oil. Each system will collect 5,000 tons of oil each day. . . . The Dutch offered to fly their skimmer arm systems to the Gulf 3 days after the oil spill started. The offer was apparently turned down because EPA regulations do not allow water with oil to be pumped back into the ocean. If all the oily water was retained in the tanker, the capacity of the system would be greatly diminished because most of what is pumped into the tanker is sea water. As of June 8th, BP reported that they have collected 64,650 barrels of oil in the Gulf. That is only a fraction of the amount of oil spilled from the well. That is less than one day's rated capacity of the Dutch oil skimmers.
Well, clearly the solution to cleaning up this oil spill and preventing more in the future is more government regulation </sarcasm>. How any sane person can still want to entrust our government with running anything bigger than a lemonade stand at this point completely eludes me.
Update:
It looks like the government has also been actively impeding the use of a supply of boom which is actually higher quality than the (very limited) supplies they have now.
Hey, whaddya know! Obama was telling the truth! His administration really has been involved since day 1 after all! |
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