In Virginia, offshore drilling a bipartisan goal
The Republican governor is ‘eager to get started,’ and the state’s Democratic senators are urging the Obama administration to begin selling leases next year. The plan has raised concern from NASA.
Virginia Gov. Robert McDonnell has pledged to make the state the “energy capital of the East Coast.” (Steve Helber / Associated Press / January 27, 2010)
Reporting from Washington – Virginia could become the first state on the Eastern Seaboard to open its coast to energy exploration since a decades-old federal drilling ban expired more than a year ago.
The new Republican governor, Robert McDonnell, pledged to make Virginia the “energy capital of the East Coast” at his swearing-in last month. The state’s Democratic senators, Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner, are also urging the Obama administration to begin selling leases next year for drilling 50 miles offshore.
via In Virginia, offshore drilling a bipartisan goal – latimes.com.
Las Vegas, 5 April 2009. Trace Adkins sings Till the Last Shot’s Fired with the West Point Cadet Glee Club
75% Are Angry At Government’s Current Policies
Monday, February 08, 2010 Email to a Friend ShareThis
Voters are madder than ever at the current policies of the federal government.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 75% of likely voters now say they are at least somewhat angry at the government’s current policies, up four points from late November and up nine points since September. The overall figures include 45% who are Very Angry, also a nine-point increase since September.
via 75% Are Angry At Government’s Current Policies – Rasmussen Reports™.
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February 08, 2010
Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Zeitgeist
By C. Edmund Wright
While Barack Obama remains obsessed with George W. Bush, Sarah Palin hardly acknowledged his existence in Nashville at the Tea Party convention. Her back to the future vision for America skipped right over all the Bush years and went back to the principles of Ronald Reagan.
That was perfectly appropriate for the Tea Party convention. It is the zeitgeist of the movement.
The “kinder-gentler, compassionate conservatism” of Bushes 41 and 43 brought deeply flawed big spending concepts that have become confusing distractions. Those 12 years of drift — surrounding Newt Gingrich's forcing of Bill Clinton to govern from the right — have allowed liberals to blur issues and blame the failure of big government on conservatism. Ironic, isn't it? How's that new tone working out again, Mr. Rove?
Not so well. Too many independents fell for the spin and assumed the Republican brand forever meant the undefined Bush mush. This confusion and a teleprompter helped folks conclude that Obama was a reasonable, articulate and super intelligent post-partisan and post-racial pragmatist.
via American Thinker: Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Zeitgeist.
Kandahar, Afghanistan
08 February 2010
American troops are spread widely across Afghanistan. Some are remote and accessibility is difficult. In 2008, I was with six soldiers in Zabul Province who didn’t even get mail for three months. They had no email. They were on the moon. Six courageous men, in the middle of nowhere, and their nearest backup was a small Special Forces team about five hours away. Resupply to these small outposts is crucial, difficult, and would require major effort by ground. Enter the United States Air Force.
Tonight’s mission was to fly from Kandahar Airfield (KAF) to Bagram Airfield (BAF), pick up specially rigged bundles of fuel and ammunition and parachute those to American forces up near the border of Turkmenistan.
via Special Delivery.
Recession chugs on, except in government
Examiner Editorial
February 8, 2010
White House apologists were quick to point to the unemployment rate decline from 10 percent to 9.7 percent as evidence that the recovery is gathering momentum and that President Obama’s policies — especially his $787 billion economic stimulus bill Congress approved last February — are “working.” But the back story behind the figures provides cold comfort.
First, the drop to 9.7 percent unemployment does not reflect the creation of new jobs that normally accompanies an economic recovery. The number of new jobs is actually declining. Total nonfarm payroll employment, for example, dipped by an additional 20,000 positions after a December decline of 150,000 positions. The unemployment rate the day Obama took office last year stood at 7.6 percent and 134.6 million people had jobs. When he signed the economic stimulus, Obama promised the bill would bolster the economy sufficiently to keep unemployment below 8.0 percent. But the unemployment rate has exceeded 8.0 percent since last fall, and total employment stands at only 129.5 million. The stimulus has been a bust.
via Recession chugs on, except in government | Washington Examiner.
COLUMNS AND OPEDS
Hugh Hewitt: Memo to Arianna: Stop being silly
By: HUGH HEWITT - Examiner Columnist
February 8, 2010
Yesterday’s joint appearance with Arianna Huffington on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” hosted by the estimable Howard Kurtz, gave me a chance to tell Arianna in person what most people think about her crusade against the Fox News Channel: It is silly.
Her focus on a word here and a phrase there is silly.
The warning that Glenn Beck or others are “inciting” the public and that this is dangerous is silly.
The program also gave me the opportunity to say on television what I often say on radio: If I had it in my power, I’d give Keith Olbermann a 24/7 cable channel because he does more good for the center-right than almost anyone in America.
His wild-eyed craziness combined with obvious lack of knowledge about so many things make him an advertisement for conservatism, and I really hope he survives his ratings plummet.
He’s the perfect example of a prompter-dependant sports announcer-turned-political commentator who digs a hole for the Left every night. Long may he broadcast.
via Hugh Hewitt: Memo to Arianna: Stop being silly | Washington Examiner.
OPINION FEBRUARY 8, 2010
Toward a Different Fiscal Future
Tax increases can’t plausibly address the coming entitlement crisis.
By R. Glenn Hubbard
Moody’s Investors Service’s warning last week that the AAA credit rating of the United States is in jeopardy raises fresh concern about the nation’s fiscal health. The question to ask about the president’s eye-popping budget, also rolled out last week, is whether it prepares the country for its future—or shackles it to past decisions that our leaders would rather not confront.
President Obama’s blueprint gave us a federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2010 of $1.6 trillion, about 10.6% of GDP. While one expects bigger budget deficits in a downturn, the administration expects the deficit and debt buildup to persist. By 2013, it forecasts that deficits will bring about a debt-to-GDP ratio of 72%, unprecedented in our experience except during a major war.
The problem is spending. Despite Mr. Obama’s words about restraint, the new budget proposes more spending—1.8% of GDP for 2011 to be precise—and a higher level, roughly one percentage point of GDP higher, in subsequent years.
Debates about the budget traditionally revolve around these numbers. There is another way to look at the federal budget, however, and that is to focus on its effect on our economic health, not just the government’s fiscal health. Focusing on economic health means setting our sights on productivity growth—our future living standards.
via Hubbard: Obama’s Budget Means Higher Taxes and Lower Living Standards – WSJ.com.
FEBRUARY 8, 2010
Democrats Divide on Voice of Possible Top-Court Pick
By JESS BRAVIN
WASHINGTON—Democrats gearing up for a possible Supreme Court vacancy are divided over whether President Barack Obama should appoint a prominent liberal voice while their party still commands a large Senate majority, or go with someone less likely to stoke Republican opposition.
The court’s longest-serving member, Justice John Paul Stevens, has suggested that he may retire at the current term’s end in June, when he will be 90 years old.
The second-eldest justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 76, has said she hopes to emulate her judicial idol, Justice Louis Brandeis, who retired at 83. But Justice Ginsburg’s health issues—she was treated last year for pancreatic cancer—have made preparations for her retirement prudent, officials said.
If any justice steps down, it would be the second opportunity for Mr. Obama to name a member of the court. Last year, the president chose Sonia Sotomayor to succeed the liberal-leaning Justice David Souter.
The White House considered Justice Sotomayor’s rise from Bronx, N.Y., through the Ivy League and onto the federal bench as a potent symbol of American social mobility.
Some liberals lamented that she lacked the provocative philosophical profile that Republican administrations have sought in some of their most important judicial nominees, such as Justice Antonin Scalia, a Reagan appointee who has popularized a conservative approach to legal interpretation.
via Democrats Divide on Voice of Possible Top-Court Nominee – WSJ.com.
Glenn Reynolds: Nashville Shows Tea Party Is America’s Third Great Awakening | Washington Examiner
Glenn Reynolds: Nashville Shows Tea Party Is America’s Third Great Awakening
By: Glenn Harlan Reynolds
Examiner Contributor
February 7, 2010
I attended this past weekend’s National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, and I came away feeling that I had seen something important. The Tea Party movement is part of something bigger: America’s Third Great Awakening.
America’s prior Great Awakenings, in the 18th and 19th Centuries, were religious in nature. Unimpressed with self-serving, ossified, and often corrupt religious institutions, Americans responded with a bottom-up reassertion of faith, and independence.
This time, it’s different. It’s not America’s churches and seminaries that are in trouble: It’s America’s politicians and parties. They’ve grown corrupt, venal, and out-of-touch with the values, and the people, that they’re supposed to represent. So the people, once again, are reasserting themselves.
via Glenn Reynolds: Nashville Shows Tea Party Is America’s Third Great Awakening | Washington Examiner.
MARK TAPSCOTT: Sarah Palin is miles ahead of every other politician in America: She has a Palm Pilot! | Washington Examiner
MARK TAPSCOTT
Mark Tapscott: Sarah Palin is miles ahead of every other politician in America: She has a Palm Pilot!
By: MARK TAPSCOTT - Editorial Page Editor
February 7, 2010
Sarah Palin greets well-wishers after her address Saturday night before the Tea Party National Convention in Nashville. (Glenn Reynolds/Instapundit.com)
Watching Sarah Palin’s speech to the Tea Party National Convention last night in Nashville on PJTV, it was clear that she has a rapport and comfort with the Tea Partiers that is unmatched among politicians at the national level.
While I suspect that mine is a minority view among the leadership of conservative activism and journalism (and I am often reminded in a jocular sort of way that my view of Palin is a minority among my colleagues at The Examiner and The Weekly Standard), I believe Palin is miles ahead of every other national figure in understanding where the country has been in the last year and what the Tea Party movement means about the future course of American politics.
That doesn’t mean I think Palin is or even should be a candidate for president or any other elective office in 2012 or any other time. What it does mean is I believe Palin has a unique insight into the state of things and is moving systematically and intelligently in concert with that insight. Where that leads, nobody, including Palin, likely knows at this point.
That I am not alone in seeing Palin in such terms is demonstrated by, of all places, The New York Times where reporter Mark Liebovich wrote:
In a statement, House Republican leader John Boehner said that he is looking forward to the discussion and is “pleased that the White House finally seems interested in a real, bipartisan conversation on health care. The American people have overwhelmingly rejected both of the job-killing trillion-dollar government takeover of health care bills passed by the House and Senate. The problem with the Democrats’ health care bills is not that the American people don’t understand them; the American people do understand them, and they don’t like them.”
Obama invites GOP to health-care summit
Sunday February 7, 2010
By Michael D. Shear
President Obama made a dramatic attempt to jump-start the stalled health care debate Sunday, inviting Republicans in Congress to a half-day summit on the subject to be televised live later this month.
The president made the offer in an interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric just hours before the Superbowl. Obama challenged Republicans to come to the discussion armed with their best ideas for how to cover more Americans and fix the health insurance system.
“I want to consult closely with our Republican colleagues,” Obama told Couric. “What I want to do is to ask them to put their ideas on the table… I want to come back and have a large meeting, Republicans and Democrats to go through, systematically, all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward.”
The invitation to join him later this month follows comments he made on Thursday during a speech at a Democratic fundraiser in which he said he wanted to sit with Republicans and “walk through the [health care plans] in a methodical way so that the American people can see and compare what makes the most sense.”
Special Forces Assassins Infiltrate Taliban Stronghold in Afghanistan
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Feb. 7: U.S. soldiers of the 4th Battalion, 23th Infantry Regiment, 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division train in Helmand province, Afghanistan.
American and British forces poised to assault the Taliban stronghold of Marjah, in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province, have begun targeting insurgent leaders for assassination, The Sunday Times reported.
Special forces have been infiltrating the town on “kinetic” missions — jargon for armed attacks.
“Special forces guys have been going in on assassination missions with the aim of decapitating the Taliban force,” a military source told the Sunday Times.
At U.S. Marine base Camp Leatherneck and the adjoining British base of Camp Bastion, troops and munitions have been airlifted in by night to avoid enemy rockets. In a break from traditional military secrecy, American, British and Afghan commanders have revealed that Marjah, the last town in Helmand under Taliban control, will in fact be the site of fighting in the near future.
Though Operation Moshtarak —Operation Together — has been widely publicized by top military leaders, the timeline for the offensive has not been revealed.
The success of the planned campaign depends on how quickly troops and civilian development workers can get public services up and running once the Taliban have been driven away, the top U.S. and NATO commander said Sunday.
Fmr. Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) delivered the closing keynote address of the first-ever National Tea Party Convention, held in Nashville, TN.
‘Sarah Palin to Appear on ‘Fox News Sunday’
FOXNews.com
Sarah Palin goes after how the president wants to prosecute terrorists on “Fox News Sunday.”
Sarah Palin, in an interview with Chris Wallace to air on “Fox News Sunday,” said terrorists “aren’t worthy of our rights” and shouldn’t be given civilian trials like the one for self-professed 9/11 mastermind and four other men being held at Guantanamo Bay.
“There are many things that (Obama’s) doing today that cause an uneasiness in many, many Americans. I’m one of those who looks at the way that he is treating the trials of these terrorists,” Palin tells “Fox News Sunday.”
She goes on saying, “These are acts of war these terrorists are committing. We need to treat them a little differently than an American being worthy of our U.S. constitutional rights.”
The 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee is also tonight’s featured speaker at the National Tea Party Convention.
Please watch Sarah Palin on “Fox News Sunday.” Check your local listings.
via FOXNews.com – Sarah Palin to Appear on ‘Fox News Sunday’.
