Don Singleton

Monday, August 04, 2008

Pelosi firm: No vote on offshore drilling

USATODAY.com reported House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday ruled out a vote on new offshore oil drilling

A lot of Democrats see the need for drillig (which is why Pelosi will not let it come up for a vote). How about calling for a vote for a new Speaker of the House. If Republicans team up with reasonable Democrats, maybe they could select a new Democratic speaker.

even as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he might be open to a compromise that included it.

TheHill reported The White House has rejected calls from House Republicans that it convene a special session of Congress on energy, saying it wouldn’t make a difference. “We don't have plans to call Congress into session -- it won't make a difference if Democratic leaders are unwilling to bring up a bill for an up-down vote,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.

How about calling Congress back in session but shutting down the air conditioners until they cme up with a solution to this energy problem.

Vote on allowing more domestic and offshore oil drilling

Ben Pershing wrote in WaPo reported Having thoroughly enjoyed their revival-style meeting on the House floor Friday, a group of Republican lawmakers plan to return to the chamber today to deliver more speeches on why they believe Congress should come back from its August break to vote on allowing more domestic and offshore oil drilling.

Wonderful!!!!!

... once again, today's proceedings will not be broadcast because the House cameras are off when the chamber is not in session. So readers looking for updates will have to rely on reporters' descriptions or on members who use Twitter, Qik and other electronic applications which sound vaguely like breakfast cereals.

Actually I thought his use of twitter was very interesting, and it is telling that Ben cannot think of any way to demean it than by saying it sounds like a breakfast cereal.

... On Friday, House Republicans succeeded in drawing attention to their efforts because although their message -- DRILL! DRILL! -- was not new,

It is something we should have been doing the last 30 years.

their presentation of it was decidedly novel.

Glad to hear Ben admit that.

And the GOP managed to catch the Capitol press corps just as it was finishing up work on a fleet of "the politics of energy" stories, with reporters still in the building to witness what Republicans were doing.... Their stated goal -- to force Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to bring the House back into session to vote on drilling -- will never be achieved,

I thought it was th President that called Congress back into session to deal on an important matter, and I hope Bush will do so.

so the coverage-starved minority's primary hope is to earn some valuable free media. But now that everyone has written their stories and blogged their posts on the unusual non-session, what will we all write today?

I am writing tis, in response to your article.

How many reporters will even be in the Capitol press galleries, which are normally deserted in August?

Maybe more than you think, because what other news is competing with it.

Seeing what you want to see

Any intelligent person just saw Mc'Cain's ad The One as funny, but the unhinged see it differently. Michael at Discourse.net thinks McCain is saying it indicates Obama == The Anti-Christ and says In light of last week’s attack on a Unitarian church for being too “liberal,” is it so far-fetched to worry that some unhinged true believer may hear all this and decide he has a call to assassinate the anti-Christ?

Does a church attacking Obama for being too liberal prove he is the anti-Christ? And any true believer that has read the Bible knows the Anti Christ cannot be killed until three and 1/2 years after the start of the Tribulation, which occurs after the Rapture, and even then he will not stay dead.

and David Gergen believes the ad is code for calling Obama “uppity”

Looks like Gergen is desperate for something to let him say someone other than Obama is introducing racism in the campaign.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

Gang of 10 offer stupid plan

Senator Kent Conrad | North Dakota reported A bipartisan coalition of senators led by Senator Kent Conrad today unveiled a sweeping energy proposal to reduce gas prices, lessen our nation’s dependence on foreign oil, and strengthen America’s economy.

At least they see there is a problem, but this weak approach will not fix it.

... Senators working with Senator Conrad to develop the proposal include: Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).... The New Era bill contains three main components:

An intensive effort to transition vehicles to non-petroleum based fuels;
Convert vehicles to an unreliable fuel surce just to hope it is there by the time they need it or disable our transportation system. Brilliant. Why not let the market free to develop on its own. If the fuel is there people wil figure out how to use it.
a robust federal commitment to conservation and energy efficiency;
High prices are doing that right now.
and
targeted, responsible domestic production of energy resources.
- Opens additional acreage in the Gulf of Mexico for leasing (in consultation with the Defense Department to ensure that drilling is done in a manner consistent with national security) and allows Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia to opt in to leasing off their shores.
  Allow drilling off both coasts and in Anwar.
  Retains an environmental buffer zone extending 50 miles offshore where new oil production will not be allowed.
  Stupid.
  Requires all new production to be used domestically.
  Transportation costs will take care of that.
  Creates a commission to make recommendations to Congress on future areas that should be considered for leasing.
  Allow drilling off both coasts and in Anwar
  Provides for appropriate revenue sharing for states that allow leasing off their shores;
  Te federal government should not be deciding what is appropriate for states to earn.
- Provides grants and loan guarantees for the development of coal-to-liquid fuel plants with carbon capture capability. Plants must have lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions below those of the petroleum fuels they are replacing;
  You are going to make the plants responsible for how the fuel they produce is used?????
- Supports nuclear energy by increasing staff at the NRC, providing workforce training, accelerating depreciation for nuclear plants, and supporting R&D on spent fuel recycling to reduce nuclear waste.
  Supporting nuclear power is good, but how about:
  making it easier to get a permit
  encouraging construction of new plants
  Getting the storage facility in Nevada open and ready to store waste.

Ed Morrissey blogged Harry Reid, on his way out of town, issued a mildly supportive statement, and Nancy Pelosi hasn’t yet commented. This compromise could save the Democrats from their own leadership, and it represents a major rebellion against the hard-line demagoguery provided by Reid and Pelosi. This expansion represents a good start to restoring some common sense to American energy policy and marginalizing the radical environmentalists who have taken it hostage for a generation.

The One

There was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth about McCain's Celebrity video relating Paris Hilton, Britany, and Obama. Just think what the latest video is going to stir up among the Obamamessiah supporters.

As Betsy Newmark said:

This is a hoot and does a great job of playing off of Gerard Baker's great column from last week.

Watch for the Obama people to blow a gasket and Obama to say that there are much more important issues for them to be discussing. Well, if that is what he wants, let him agree to appear in a townhall style debate with McCain. Then they could discuss issues all they wanted. Until then the Obama campaign will just have to learn to live with being ridiculed.

I'm Back

Sorry I was down for a couple of days. Blogger suddenly decided my blog might be a spam blog and I could not post anything until a human took a look at it and decided it was not a spam blog.

Here is what they said:

Your blog at: http://donsingleton.blogspot.com/ has been identified as a potential spam blog. To correct this, please request a review by filling out the form at ......

Your blog will be deleted within 20 days if it isn't reviewed, and you'll be unable to publish posts during this time. After we receive your request, we'll review your blog and unlock it within two business days. If this blog doesn't belong to you, you don't have to do anything, and any other blogs you may have won't be affected.

We find spam by using an automated classifier. Automatic spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and occasionally a blog like yours is flagged incorrectly. We sincerely apologize for this error. By using this kind of system, however, we can dedicate more storage, bandwidth, and engineering resources to bloggers like you instead of to spammers. For more information, please see Blogger Help: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42577.

Thank you for your understanding and for your help with our spam-fighting efforts.

Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

Obiously I immediately triggered the review. And during it I was able to edit an existing post, and save it as a draft, but I was unable to even post a simple notice saying why I was down, and I could not even change my template to display such a notice. At least it did not take that long to get someone to review it and unblock it.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Drill

Republicans finally begin to target Democrats on drilling

Dems will not even allow drilling if the price of gas reaches $10.00 a gallon.

Paris Hilton’s family fuming at McCain Ad

Martin Eisenstadt blogged the new McCain ad criticizing Obama for being a celebrity has ruffled some unintended feathers. I, for one, quite liked the ad, but I hear whispers from the inner campaign staff that the phone was burning off the hook today with calls from Paris Hilton’s grandfather, William Barron Hilton (co-chair of the Hilton Hotel empire), furious that the McCain ad drew an unflattering comparison between Obama and his own granddaughter.

I don't think Obama likes it either, but what has Paris Hilton done to deserve celebrity status, other than staring in a porn video?

Presumptuous nominee

Dana Milbank wrote in WaPo reported Barack Obama has long been his party's presumptive nominee. Now he's becoming its presumptuous nominee.

I bet Dana is no longer welcome on the Obam plane.

Fresh from his presidential-style world tour, during which foreign leaders and American generals lined up to show him affection,

and bow to him

Obama settled down to some presidential-style business in Washington yesterday. He ordered up a teleconference with the (current president's) Treasury secretary, granted an audience to the Pakistani prime minister and had his staff arrange for the chairman of the Federal Reserve to give him a briefing. Then, he went up to Capitol Hill to be adored by House Democrats in a presidential-style pep rally.

Along the way, he traveled in a bubble more insulating than the actual president's. Traffic was shut down for him as he zoomed about town in a long, presidential-style motorcade, while the public and most of the press were kept in the dark about his activities, which included a fundraiser at the Mayflower where donors paid $10,000 or more to have photos taken with him.

Did it include a blessing from the Obamamessiah?

China to Limit Web Access During Olympic Games

NYTimes.com reported Chinese officials, speaking about the Internet restrictions on Wednesday, said they would not allow foreign journalists to visit Web sites that violated Chinese laws.

So if they are going to write about restrictions on human rights, they need to specify what info they need, and have someone in their home country look it up.

In its negotiations with the Chinese over Internet controls, the Olympic committee official said, the panel insisted only that China provide unregulated access to sites containing information useful to sports reporters covering athletic competitions, not to a broader array of sites that the Chinese and the Olympic committee negotiators determined had little relevance to sports.

I wonder if Sports Illustrates would be willing to add an Anonymous Web Browser / Proxy Server to their site, and if they did, how long the Sports Illustrated site would be able to be accessed.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

A Canceled Obama Visit

NYTimes.com reported two days before the visit, Pentagon officials told the campaign that only Mr. Obama would be allowed inside the medical center in his capacity as a senator. The adviser who had intended to join Mr. Obama, Scott Gration, a retired major general in the Air Force, was told he could not go along because he was a volunteer campaign adviser.... If the story behind the story of the canceled troop visit has run its course, one question remains: Why didn’t Mr. Obama leave his aides behind, even the retired general, and make the visit by himself?

Because the idea of visiting the troops bored him. He wanted photo ops.

“Even him going alone would likely be characterized by some as a political event,”

And by not going he made it worse for himself.

Mr. Gibbs said in an interview on Monday, adding, “He decided not to put the troops in that position.”

The Democrats' Energy Charade

WSJ.com reported The bad news is that Democrats will try again before the November elections. We can expect more legislation that claims to increase production, but in reality offers a framework of heavy regulation, litigation and union rules that could prevent new energy supplies from getting to market.

Because that is what Democrats want: heavy regulation, litigation and union rules. They don't care ambout how much people have to pay for gas.

And we can expect legislation that would likely hamper current oil and gas exploration.

Consider the details of Drill. It would not have opened new lands to energy exploration. Instead, it would have increased the number of lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve -- the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's (ANWR's) sister territory on Alaska's North Slope -- from one lease sale every two years to one every year. The problem here came in the fine print. The bill would have mandated that leasing be done in an undefined, "environmentally responsible" way. We know from experience that such ambiguous language leads to lawsuits and delays.

Lawsuits they love, because that makes lawyers ore money, and they don't care how much people have to pay for gas.

Further, the bill authorized the construction of new pipelines, but would have mandated that they be built in an "environmentally responsible manner" using labor agreements that earmarked all the work for labor union members.

The Democrats' focus on the National Petroleum Reserve is also striking. While it contains comparable known reserves to ANWR -- 10.6 billion barrels compared to an estimated 10.4 billion barrels in the wildlife refuge -- its fields are spread over 23 million acres. The portion of ANWR territory that should be opened to exploration covers a mere 2,000 acres.

Which makes it much easier to drill in an environmentally safe way.

The National Petroleum Reserve's fields are a little over 250 miles from the current pipeline infrastructure, while ANWR is only 75 miles away. To top it off, currently there is no production in the National Petroleum Reserve because of ongoing litigation.

Obamanomics Is a Recipe for Recession

WSJ.com reported What if I told you that a prominent global political figure in recent months has proposed: abrogating key features of his government's contracts with energy companies;

It sounds like someone that does not understand the Rule of Law, at least Contract Law.

unilaterally renegotiating his country's international economic treaties;

Certainly not something that would improve how other contries think of us.

dramatically raising marginal tax rates on the "rich" to levels not seen in his country in three decades (which would make them among the highest in the world);

Sounds like a stupid Democrat.

and changing his country's social insurance system into explicit welfare by severing the link between taxes and benefits?

And after it works so good (NOT!!!)

.... From the property rights and rule of (contract) law foundations of a successful market economy to the specifics of tax, spending, energy, regulatory and trade policy, if the proposals espoused by candidate Obama ever became law, the American economy would suffer a serious setback.

True, but would not trigger a recession. It would trigger a depression....

History teaches us that high taxes and protectionism are not conducive to a thriving economy, the extreme case being the higher taxes and tariffs that deepened the Great Depression. While such a policy mix would be a real change, as philosophers remind us, change is not always progress.

Precisely.

Friday, July 25, 2008

No. 44 Has Spoken

Gerhard Spörl wrote in SPIEGEL ONLINE Anyone who saw Barack Obama at Berlin's Siegessäule on Thursday could recognize that this man will become the 44th president of the United States. He is more than ambitious -- he wants to lay claim to become the president of the world.

That sounds like the AntiChrist. Should we be looking at Obama and reading Revelations at the same time?

Jake Tapper blogged Shortly after 6 pm Central time -- just a few hours after Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, gave his speech in Berlin, which his campaign insisted was not political -- his campaign manager, David Plouffe, sent out a fundraising solicitation using the speech to raise campaign cash. "As you may have heard, Barack has been in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia this week," reads the email, with a big red "DONATE" sign.... This is certainly going to be used as ammunition for those critics who wondered about the true purpose of this "non political" trip. UPDATE: The Obama campaign takes issue with my description of its email with its big, red "DONATE" button as a "fundraising soliciation." The campaign, which has raised more money through the internet than any other campaign in world history, says the purpose of this email, the "DONATE" button notwithstanding, was for folks to see the speech and share it with their friends.

And then the donation part would just be something they would want to do when they saw what the ~~Obamamessiah~~ Antichrist was doing for them.

Mike Allen wrote on Politico.com Obama promises to 'remake the world'

It took God six days to do the job, and n the seventh he rested. How long will it take Obama?

Addressing more than 200,000 elated Europeans massed in Berlin at twilight, presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama promised Thursday that he would work to unite Christians, Muslims and Jews in a safer, more united world.

The Muslims have the same objective, they just want to unite them under Islam, with the Christians and Jews being dhimmis, or second class citizens, just paying the Jizya tax. Hummm. I know it is politically incorrect to call Obama a Muslim, even though he was born to a Muslim father, had a Muslim step father, and was raised for several years in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world. And his tax policies are to raise taxes, but just on the rich. Could it be that by rich he means Christians and Jews?

His 27-minute speech at the gold-topped Victory Column was interrupted by applause at least 30 times, with occasional audience chants of “O-ba-MA!”

Sounds like worship to me.

Billed as a speech about Transatlantic relations, it turned out to be a manifesto for the planet, with an appeal to “the burdens of global citizenship.”

To be President of the US you should be a US Citizen, not a global citizen.

iron chef klingon left this link in a comment, but it is so funny I wanted to post it here to make sure you did not miss it.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Joe Klein doesn't like McCain

Joe Klein wrote in TIME John McCain said this today in Rochester, New Hampshire
This is a clear choice that the American people have. I had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.
This is the ninth presidential campaign I've covered. I can't remember a more scurrilous statement by a major party candidate.

The first half of that statement is something McCain has said all along. The second half is the obvious rewording of it since Obama made the statement he did before he left for Iraq.

It smacks of desperation.

Joe Kline's statement smacks of desperation to find something to hit McCain with.

It renews questions about whether McCain has the right temperament for the presidency. How sad.

Sister Toldjah blogged I’d like Joe Klein to explain Obama’s position if he believes it’s not as McCain suggested. What else is one to make of someone admitting that the surge has produced positive results on so many fronts, yet at the same time argues that he still does not support it? This has got to be the most mind-boggling, stupid position Obama has taken on any issue to date. Klein’s taking offense to the way McCain characterized it does not change that fact.

Ann Althouse blogged McCain basically added a sharp twist to one of his usual statements. The usual statement is touting his own aptitude and honor. The twist is to accuse Obama of the opposite. I can't remember a more scurrilous statement by a major journalist. It smacks of desperation. It renews questions about whether Klein has the right temperament for Time Magazine. How sad.

StoptheAclu blogged Yeah, OK, Joe. How about constant comments by this and the last two major Democrat Party presidential candidates saying how horrible our foreign policy is, how they are telling the troops they are dying and being injured for the wrong reasons in the wrong war, essentially dissing the troops, and telling us how bad America is?

John Hawkins blogged So initially, it was "too late" for a surge and the situation was "impossible," so we needed to leave as quickly as possible. Now, it's impossible to lose, so we need to leave as quickly as possible.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Prisoner Deal Reopens an Israeli Wound

NYTimes reported The deal has stirred an especially painful debate in Israel, where the captured reservists, Mr. Goldwasser and Mr. Regev, both university students, have been declared dead. Though Israel has a history of trading large numbers of prisoners to receive captured soldiers, the prospect of exchanging the country’s most despised prisoner for corpses has raised hackles. There is also considerable mistrust of Hezbollah and fears that its seeming success in obtaining Mr. Kuntar’s release will only encourage it to attack again.

They [rpmised they would release Kuntar, but they should have sent him back in a box, just like their two soldiers. And they should have included explosives in the box, rigged to explode if the box was opened, and they should have urged the Palestinians to bury him without opening the box. And then when they opened it, tell them I told you not to open it.

Hezbollah has said it carried out the 2006 raid in a bid to win the release of Mr. Kuntar, whom Hezbollah celebrates as a hero. Past attempts to secure his release include the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985.

New Yorker Insulted Muslim Americans

Newsmax.com reported Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday that the New Yorker magazine's satirical cover depicting him and his wife as flag-burning, fist-bumping radicals doesn't bother him but that it was an insult to Muslim Americans.

Why is it an insult to them? Do they not fist bump.

"You know, there are wonderful Muslim Americans all across the country who are doing wonderful things," the presidential candidate told CNN's Larry King. "And for this to be used as sort of an insult, or to raise suspicions about me,

I nderstand why you my find it insulting but why should they?

I think is unfortunate. And it's not what America's all about." Obama blamed himself for not being forceful enough in challenging some of the rumors about him, including that he is Muslim. Obama is Christian.

True. He was born with a Muslim father, which made him a Muslim but he renounced Islam and "became" a Christian (if that radical church in Chicago can be called a Christian church, so he is an apostate, as far as Muslims are concerned.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Archbishop of Canterbury opens his mouth again, inserts other foot

Mail Online reported Christian doctrine is offensive to Muslims, the Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday.

They are also offended by cartoons and a lot of other things. But as a Chrisian I find Muslim doctrine offensive, like their saying Christ is not the Son of God, and that He did not die on the cross.

Dr Rowan Williams also criticized Christianity's history for its violence, its use of harsh punishments and its betrayal of its peaceful principles.

There have been violent times in Christian past, but Muslims were violent beginning in Muhammad's time, and most times since then, such as 9:29 Fight those who do not believe in God and the Last Day and do not forbid what God and his Messenger have forbidden — such men as practice not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book [i.e., Christians and Jews] – until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled and "Whoever changes his religion, kill him" which is called for in Bukhari, Abu Dawud, and many other Haddith that are not online, including Muslim, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, An-Nasai, the Muwatta of Imam Malik, Tayalisi, Ibn Hanbal, Ibn Hibban, the Sunan al-Kubraa, Bayhaqi, Abu Ya'laa, Humaidi, Abd al-Razzaq, and Ibn Abi Shaybah.

His comments came in a highly conciliatory letter to Islamic leaders calling for an alliance between the two faiths for 'the common good'.... He also said the Christian belief in the Trinity - that God is Father, Son and Holy Ghost at the same time - 'is difficult, sometimes offensive, to Muslims'. Trinitarian doctrine conflicts with the Islamic view that there is just one all-powerful God.

Maybe the Archbishop does not understand his own faith. Christianity is also monotheistic: God is Father, Son and Holy Ghost at the same time

Monday, July 14, 2008

It won't be over until Denver

CQ Politics reported She may have given up,

What makes you think she has given up?

but a few of Hillary Rodham Clinton ’s people haven’t. The senator from New York is said to be negotiating a respectful presence followed by a graceful exit from next month’s Democratic convention, and last week the party announced that Barack Obama would formally accept the party’s nomination in the stadium built for the Denver Broncos.

If Hillary is elected rather than him, will she use the stadium, or force the TV networks to change plans again and stay at the Convention site.

But there are Clinton supporters clinging to the hope that if her name is placed in nomination and the roll call of the states is conducted, she might — might — still win.

The more people learn about Obama the more likely it will be.

Heidi Li Feldman, a Georgetown University law professor, insists there’s still “no way of predicting” the outcome should there be a fair vote.

A fair vote? At a Democratic convention?

That’s because Obama has not secured enough pledged delegates to ensure the magic number of 2,118 needed to claim victory; the Illinois senator has gone past that benchmark only with the pledges of about 390 superdelegates — and they can change their minds at any time up to the moment they cast their ballots.

Ed Morrissey blogged At least it would guarantee network coverage, now at risk thanks to the DNCC’s last-minute change for the final night’s festivities. A floor vote would make Denver much more interesting — perhaps more interesting than the DNC would like. And if the unthinkable happens and Hillary wins the nomination on the floor vote, the meltdown that would follow would ensure wall-to-wall coverage.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Global Warming

Minnesotans For Global Warming first released their song

but they now released a new number set to John Lennon's "Imagine."

Hat tip to Noel Sheppard

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