More Oil- 5/26/2010

The oil spill continues to dominate headlines, as it should, and after a full 37 days President Obama is not only going to answer questions about the oil spill, he is going to take time out of his vacation to visit the gulf coast! That’s right, he is going to stop fund raising and cracking jokes with the rich donors he loves so much in order to personally see the largest oil spill in American history. It is his Hurricane Katrina, like it or not. In fact, this oil spill may end up having a larger economic impact than Hurricane Katrina by the time it is all over. I just want to see if he blames Bush at his mini-presser tomorrow.

One reason President Obama may have been preoccupied is the alleged bribe that his Administration offered Joe Sestak to drop his campaign against Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania’s Democrat Senate primary. Of course, Sestak ended up beating the 80-year old Senator who still cannot decide which party he belongs to, but the fun has only begun for Sestak and the Obama administration. Eric Holder, the worst Attorney General of my lifetime, has declined to even investigate whether there was an improper offer made to Sestak during the primary campaign. Dick Morris claims this could amount to “high crime or misdemeaner” and lead to an impeachment trial, but I doubt it. I think it will just look like the Chicago style politics that Obama and Rahm Emmanuel are all too comfortable with. Is this the most inappropriate action this Administration has engaged in? We will probably never know, but trying to buy off a Senate candidate never looks good.

One more thing to mention is this little gem I came across: http://dailycaller.com/2010/05/26/will-california-be-our-greece/
In some ways, yes, California is exactly like Greece. Outrageous pension plans (that even go to convicted felons- http://cbs13.com/onthemoney/on.the.money.2.1714884.html). I agree with the columnist that California is worse than the Greece situation. We all know who is going to be footing the bill for California…everyone in the other 49 states.

That’s all for now. Thin post…but it looks like with another financial reform vote coming tomorrow, there will be a lot more to say on Thursday.

5/25/2010

There was one story, or at least one phrase, that really played big in my mind today. The story can be found here: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/bp-oil-spill-louisiana-governor-bobby-jindal-asks/story?id=10731680

This may be an outrageous statement for me to make, but shouldn’t the Federal Government immediately grant any request made by Louisiana in regards to the oil spill (unless it involves some sort of obviously harmful activity). How, might I ask, would building islands to protect the increasingly damaged shoreline be something that the Federal Government needs to think about approving? What are the other options? The Obama Administration’s plan of blaming BP and waiting for them to solve this disaster is not working, nor is there enough oil boom (another request that Louisiana is waiting on) to fend off the oil. For an administration that believes that Government is the cure for all of societies ills, they sure are taking their sweet time with fixing this problem. Don’t take my word for it, take James Carville and Chris Matthews word then.

While this is not the best to start a “Drill Baby Drill” chant, it is hardly the time to start prosecuting every single oil company. Did BP screw up? Yes they did, just as much as Exxon did when they left the radar on the Valdez broken and disabled for more than a year (Exxon knew about the broken radar as well). The fact remains that we need oil to survive. It is as simple as that. Is this a horrible tragedy? It absolutely is. It is not the first oil spill, and I will go out on a limb and say it will not be the last. We are humans, we make mistakes (big ones too), but if we are to stop all offshore drilling (the gulf alone produces 25% of our oil…and the U.S is the worlds 3^rd largest producer of oil) we would only increase our dependence on oil from nations who would love to have our well being even more in their hands. I know what the left will say. “How much is too much?” “The risk is larger than the gain!” “Don’t you care about the whales?” All three are decent points, but the case to stop all drilling is a flawed, knee jerk reaction to an event that gets worse by the day. The important thing to take away from this tragedy is not to stop all oil drilling offshore, but to find out what went wrong and prevent it from happening again. At least Obama will take a break for a few hours from his vacation to see the gulf spill in person.

I would also not be a responsible member of the vast right wing conspiracy if I did not make mention of this story: http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/2010-05-24-income-shifts-from-private-sector_N.htm

That’s right, Obama has led America to yet another record! This time it is cold, hard proof that the goal of the “stimulus” was to expand the Federal Government in order to boost the economy and not the private sector. Those on the left find this to be a proof that the stimulus is working and is providing money to people who need it most. Unfortunately there is not one sector of the Government that produces wealth. The Federal Government, by design, is a recipient. It takes from entities that create wealth (private business) and redistribute that wealth to those who simply exist (government). This is not to say that all government should be abolished, it shouldn’t, but this is meant to say that a steadily increasing government will create a huge problem over time. We already have more people in this country WHO DO NOT PAY TAXES than we have taxpayers (47% pay, 53% receive). What happens when the public sector begins to grow so large that those who depend on the private sector for their paycheck exceeds those in the private sector? This is not likely, but let’s say, for instance, that dependence on the public sector continues to grow. These people will vote for representatives that will pledge to increase government support and public sector pay. The more attractive government work becomes, or worse, the more attractive not working becomes, the incentive to enter the private sector shrinks. Why work 10 hour days when you can work a maximum of 8? Why work on weekends when you are guaranteed to have them off? Why work when you do not have to? I doubt the US will adopt any of Greece’s policies anytime soon, especially the policy of paying public sector workers for 14 months of work over each 12 month period. However, it is not hard to see that the immense cost of Federal pension plans will begin to impact our economy, especially as the baby boomer’s start to retire in increasingly large numbers.

Don’t worry, I can throw down on the right as well…WE HAVE OUR OWN JOE BIDEN! ProTip- When you have already plagiarized…don’t do it again.

That is all for now.

Some Things of Note

Ah Yes. The first of what I hope are many blog posts. Obviously a lot happened today. BP oil spill is still spilling, South and North Korea are still close to fighting, the Regime is getting ready for some meetings with our landlords (China), and Obama's approval rating fell to 44% while support for repealing his health care plan is at 63%. However, there were two stories that caught my attention enough to warrant my immediate response (because as we all know, I set the talking points for conservative talking heads).

The first is this story: http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2010/05/24/lawmaker-introduces-b-union-pension-bailout/

Pennsylvania’s Junior Senator Bob Casey has come out and said that the Federal Government U.S Taxpayers should bailout union pensions to the tune of $165 Billion. These pensions are private contracts between private parties and must be paid until the recipient is dead. While the $165 Billion for bailing out private pensions for the SEIU and AFL-CIO seems ludicrous, which it is, it raises a much more interesting issue at hand: What are we going to do with the PUBLIC SECTOR PENSIONS that would require an even larger bailout. Just as an example, the unfunded liability for California’s public sector pensions weighs in at a hefty $500 Billion. (http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/06/opinion/la-oe-crane6-2010apr06) That is more than THREE TIMES what Sen. Casey is asking for, and this is just one state. The solution? Well, we cannot renege on contracts now, but we can look towards the future. End all public sector unions and cut down on pension payouts for my generation and subsequent ones. Does planning for retirement mean you have to save some of your money now and not spend it on a brand new Corvette? Yes, it does. As much as I will grow to appreciate the massive tax increases that will be levied on me in order to pay for the reckless spending habits of previous generations, I would prefer to hand down only my baseball card collection to my children and grandchildren, and not a debt that will threaten the stability of our Republic.

The other story that caught my eye, probably because I am a former resident of this state and grew up just across the border in New Hampshire (a far superior state) is this verbal gaffe from Gov. Deval Patrick: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/05/patrick_says_ob.html

For those history buffs out there they may recall this in their independent studies (because you never learned about this dark little period in school).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition_Act_of_1918

Hey, that is the same word Deval Patrick used! Should you be surprised at this? No, because silencing the opposition is a tactic as old as Progressivism itself. Just look at Obamacare, which was the first major piece of social welfare legislation that was passed strictly on partisan lines. Am I saying that this is a call to silence the Conservative movement? No, it isn’t, but is just the latest in a string of attacks against the critics of an increasingly unpopular President (44% approval: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll). Then again, after the polite way the left in America treat George Bush during his eight years as President, I can see why they would be mad at the right constantly attacking the statist agenda of the Obama Regime. Remember, using the word sedition to describe the opposition to Obama means that those of us on the right are trying to incite insurrection against a lawful authority. Deval must think that because of all those violent rallies held by Tea Party Protesters, like this one: http://www.youtube.com/user/mightymik#p/u/0/Pn0HdZlIDKQ

Yeah, that must be it.

Oh, and my favorite video of the day:

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/05/ultra-lib-speaker-booed-during-her-commencement-lecture-to-university-of-arizona-students-video/

That is all for now.