Monthly Archives: June 2010

The 2010 Election Is Not In The Bag

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The following is a excerpt from a great post about the importance (and not taking for granted) the 2010 election. Via UNCOVERAGE.net:

The warning signs have been posted:  The influence of big labor on the November election will be omnipresent, oppressive and relentless.   The fall election will determine whether democracy continues or dies based on the success of big labor’s ability to perform well for Democrats.   That is not hyperbole.   To continue from  what writer Falknor asserts in his article below, if the November election maintains the Democratic majority in the House, opposing voices will be crushed.   The adminstration’s moves to regulate the internet,and  to control political speech will be ratcheted firmly into place if the Democrats prevail.  We are in constitutional “crisis” now, according to constitutional law attorney and talk show host Mark Levin.   Lose November, and there will not be a “meaningful” election in 2012.   Tyranny will be achieved.

I cannot believe that there is such a deterioration in our democracy that  I am writing these words.  But,  the chess pieces are edging into checkmate position: universal voter registration, registration of convicted felons, possible “amnesty” immigration reform, generous ACORN and community activist funding through various government “slush” funds, election  fraud in absentee and election machine voting, and manipulation of many secretaries of state through George Soros’ 527 political committee.

Even the worst politician in office is fully capable of getting re-elected. In 2006, after her disastrous first term as Michigan’s Governor, I never thought it would be possible that Democrat Jennifer Granholm would be re-elected. But she was, and you can see how great that turned out.

Don’t underestimate the ability of the GOP of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. We will need all conservatives fully engaged, informed and voting for the most conservative candidates on the ballot in  134 days.

Obama Bans Offshore Drilling In USA While Financing Offshore Drilling In Brazil

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The Democrats, Obama and his economic wrecking crew have banned offshore drilling in the United States but have loaned Brazil $2 billion to help Petrobras, the state owned Brazilian oil company, to develop their off shore oil fields. Via the WSJ:

The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery in Brazil’s Tupi oil field in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s planning minister confirmed that White House National Security Adviser James Jones met this month with Brazilian officials to talk about the loan.

The U.S. Export-Import Bank tells us it has issued a “preliminary commitment” letter to Petrobras in the amount of $2 billion and has discussed with Brazil the possibility of increasing that amount. Ex-Im Bank says it has not decided whether the money will come in the form of a direct loan or loan guarantees. Either way, this corporate foreign aid may strike some readers as odd, given that the U.S. Treasury seems desperate for cash and Petrobras is one of the largest corporations in the Americas. (emphasis added)

So, why exactly are we helping to finance offshore drilling in Brazil (if oil is so bad) while simultaneously putting almost 21,000 American workers out of work in the Gulf region alone? Via the Guardian.uk:

Since the ban was imposed on 28 May – more than a month after the Deepwater Horizon accident – all 33 drilling rigs operating in the Gulf have been idled. The rig owners have warned they will tow them elsewhere if the ban remains in place.

“Once these rigs move overseas and enter into long-term contracts, they not going to come back in six months and one day,” he said. “That is the problem.”

The rigs directly employ around 7,000 people. But, according to the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, each offshore job supports three more onshore, meaning a further 21,000 jobs are at risk. Rosenblum added: “It’s an eco-system of businesses which are being harmed even now by this moratorium.”

He said the US government had broken the law by not consulting with local politicians about the ban. He compared it to the response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which resulted in the airline industry being shut down for three days. “Never before has the government with a stroke of a pen shut down on entire industry for six months,” he said. (emphasis added)

And by the way, the wells off the coast of Brazil are considered “ultra deep” wells:

Unfortunately, deep water drilling comes with a price…

In 2007, Brazil reported the discovery of a massive offshore oil field. The Tupi discovery boosted Brazil’s proven oil reserves more than 50%. But don’t let this ultra-deep field’s huge numbers fool you-it’s going to take a lot of time and money to bring Tupi into production.

In order to extract the oil, producers have to go through 7,000 feet of water, over 10,000 feet of sand and rocks as well as another 6,000 feet of salt.

That is 23,000 feet of drilling before you get to the oil. For comparison, the Deepwater Horizon was working in a water depth of  4,992 feet of water.

Acoustic Version Of Manic Monday

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Great version of the song:

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AP Writers Trying To Advance Democrat Agenda Of Increased Regulations

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The AP is holding up Canada as the model we (the United States) should follow for increasing financial regulations:

“We should be proud of the performance of our financial system during the crisis,” said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in an interview with The Associated Press.

He recalled visiting China in 2007 and hearing suggestions “that the Canadian banks were perhaps boring and too risk-adverse. And when I was there two weeks ago some of my same counterparts were saying to me, ‘You have a very solid, stable banking system in Canada,’ and emphasizing that. There wasn’t anything about being sufficiently risk-oriented.”

The banks are stable because, in part, they’re more regulated. As the U.S. and Europe loosened regulations on their financial industries over the last 15 years, Canada refused to do so. The banks also aren’t as leveraged as their U.S. or European peers.

There was no mortgage meltdown or subprime crisis in Canada. Banks don’t package mortgages and sell them to the private market, so they need to be sure their borrowers can pay back the loans.

In Canada’s concentrated banking system, five major banks dominate the market and regulators know each of the top bank executives personally.

I would argue that through the Clinton-era (1994) initiative “The National Homeownership Strategy: Partners in the American Dream” is a more onerous regulation. One that forced banks to finance homes for people who could not afford them, and subsequently lead to the avalanche of foreclosures we are still working through today.

Via Business Week:

Plenty of other ideas in the plan did become reality, though. Knowing what we know now about the housing bust, the earnest language in the document seems faintly ridiculous. Here’s an excerpt. Read it closely and you can see the seeds of disaster being planted:

For many potential homebuyers, the lack of cash available to accumulate the required downpayment and closing costs is the major impediment to purchasing a home. Other households do not have sufficient available income to to make the monthly payments on mortgages financed at market interest rates for standard loan terms. Financing strategies, fueled by the creativity and resources of the private and public sectors, should address both of these financial barriers to homeownership.

Note the praise for “creativity.” That kind of creativity in stretching boundaries we could use less of. Mason puts it well: “It strikes me as reckless to promote home sales to individuals in such constrained financial predicaments.”

The best plan is to get the politicians out of the private sector and let the people who understand the markets make the decisions.

The Detroit Free Press Insists That The Oil Leak In The Gulf Is Reason To Pass Cap And Trade

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The Detroit Free Press (Detroit’s more Liberal News Paper) has published a rambling op-ed urging Obama and his economic wrecking crew to end our addiction to “fossil fuel” because of the oil leak in the gulf.

Via the aforementioned Freep:

A logical nexus

Opponents contend that Obama is mixing apples and oranges by conflating climate change legislation with his campaign to reduce reliance on oil. But the president is merely connecting the dots. Projections indicate the Kerry-Lieberman bill would accelerate the transition from fossil fuels. A study by the Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics suggests the bill’s mandates for alternative fuels and more efficient vehicles would reduce oil imports by one-third over the next quarter century.

To start with, we derive much more than gasoline for our cars from oil. Everything from fertilizer for our crops to light weight plastics for automobiles are manufactured from plastics. As I posted previously, our entire economy is based on oil and adding  windmills and solar panels is not going to change that.

And we use very little petroleum to generate electricity

And moving to large scale electric vehicle use will shift the problem from importing foreign petroleum (mainly from Canada and Mexico) to importing foreign lithium form places like Bolivia.

Furthermore nations that have made big pushes for ‘green energy’ have found it not economically viable. Spain, Denmark, The U.K.,  Germany and even China have found that green energy will not pay for itself:

Another big myth is the ‘green energy’ will create ‘green jobs.’ The reality is that ‘green energy’ creates heavily subsidized jobs:

Growth Energy, an industry lobby group, says increasing the percentage of ethanol blended into the U.S. gasoline supply would create 136,000 jobs. But an analysis by the Environmental Working Group found that no more than 27,000 jobs would be created, and each one could cost taxpayers as much as $446,000 per year. (emphasis added)

What a deal.

While Granholm is bullish on wind power, Energy companies in China are finding that even with their significantly lower cost structures, lax environmental regulations, free land and nearly perfect wind conditions, they can’t turn a profit:

No wonder the Detroit Free Press, with a political agenda substituting for an editorial perspective, can’t afford to publish a paper every day.

The State Of The Race: Michigan’s GOP Gubernatorial Nomination

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The field is tightening as we approach the Michigan primaries on August 3rd, 2010. Via The Hill Blog:

Rep. Pete Hoekstra and state Attorney General Mike Cox and found themselves neck and neck this weekend for the GOP nod to run for governor in Michigan.

After having maintained a steady lead for months over other Republican primary challengers, Hoekstra found himself trailing slightly behind Cox, according to a new EPIC-MRA poll.

26 percent of GOP primary voters in the Great Lakes State said they would pick Cox if the August 3 primary were held today, as opposed to 24 percent that would opt for Hoekstra.

20 percent would support businessman Rick Snyder and 16 percent would vote for Oakland County sheriff and 2006 Senate candidate Mike Bouchard.

The poll shows momentum for Cox since a May poll by the same organization, which showed Hoekstra well ahead of the pack with support from 30 percent of Republican voters, followed by Cox at 18 percent, Snyder at 17 percent, and Bouchard at 16 percent.

Question for Michigan readers… Who are you supporting for Governor?

The Detroit Rock and Roll Play List @ The Resistance

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I posted a rock and roll play list over @ The Resistance that contains many (in my opinion) of the great Detroit rock artists:

  • Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels
  • The Rockets
  • Ted Nugent
  • Kid Rock
  • The White Stripes
  • John 5
  • Alice Cooper
  • Iggy Pop
  • Marshall Crenshaw
  • Uncle Cracker
  • Bob Seagar
  • Stevie Wonder
  • Aretha Franklin
  • The Von Bondies
  • The Howling Diablos
  • Glenn Frey
  • Martha Reeves

Check it out at The Resistance

When You are Not Prepared It Will Seem Like You Are “Snakebit”

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The Obama and Jimmy Carter comparisons continue.

I don’t know how you can call Obama snakebit. He entered office with rubber stamp majorities in both chambers of Congress and a fawning press who thinks he can do know wrong.

Via Peggy Noonan @ the WSJ:

The president is starting to look snakebit. He’s starting to look unlucky, like Jimmy Carter. It wasn’t Mr. Carter’s fault that the American diplomats were taken hostage in Tehran, but he handled it badly, and suffered. He defied the rule of the King in “Pippin,” the Broadway show of Carter’s era, who spoke of “the rule that every general knows by heart, that it’s smarter to be lucky than it’s lucky to be smart.” Mr. Carter’s opposite was Bill Clinton, on whom fortune smiled with eight years of relative peace and a worldwide economic boom. What misfortune Mr. Clinton experienced he mostly created himself. History didn’t impose it.

There really isn’t such a thing as being snake bit. When difficult (unlucky) times arise, you manage the situation by relying on your experiences and hard work to get through them with positive results.  Obviously, this is not happening.

I guess just under three years in the US Senate is not enough experience:

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Even The Europeans Are Comparing Obama To Jimmy Carter

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If you want to be the Liberal President of the world and you lose the hard core left in Europe, look out. Via Spiegel Online:

Can US President Barack Obama lead America away from fossil fuel dependency? German commentators don’t think so. Some say he is in danger of turning into an idealistic, one-term president like Jimmy Carter.

US President Barack Obama’s address from the Oval Office on Tuesday was supposed to be a moment of leadership during the worst environmental disaster in American history. But critics from across the political spectrum wondered afterwards whether he’d shown leadership at all. The geyser of oil in the Gulf of Mexico seems, technologically, to lie beyond anything either BP or the US government was prepared for, and Obama failed to mention any specific new ideas.

And this quote:

The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:
“Obama wants to lead the US out of its dependence on oil. Absolutely right. In fact it’s the very thing people have been wanting to hear from Obama for weeks.”

“But how cautious he seems, and how vague his suggestions. In 1961 President Kennedy declared a national mission to place a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Obama has chosen not to name concrete goals. No numbers, no time frame. He doesn’t dare mention how things will have to change to favor the climate. Professor Obama waits for new ideas and looks forward to a public debate. He doesn’t dare push the Senate to settle on a climate-change bill. This president won’t lead America out of a crisis this way — and he certainly won’t usher in a new era.”

All that apologizing and they don’t respect him.

Video: Russian Sukhoi T-50 Stealth Fighter Flight Demonstration For Vladimir Putin

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Via Russia Today:

Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is personally overseeing the country’s efforts to create one of the most advanced fighter jets in the world. He stopped by the Zhukovsky airfield outside Moscow to watch a test flight of the Sukhoi T-50 jet. The plane features an array of technical and design innovations. Sukhoi, the company behind it, says it’ll be a few more years before the fifth-generation jet is ready for mass production.

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Also @ MCT:

Video: Russian Sukhoi T-50 Stealth Fighter

The T-50 Russian Stealth Fighter