Daily Archives: January 23, 2012

01/23/12

Obama Preventing Our Catalyst to Exit Recession Now

By: Jeffrey Klein, Political Buzz Examiner
Examiner.com

President Obama’s refusing to permit the Keystone XL Pipeline last week has nothing to do with “environmental concerns” arising from it crossing the Ogallala Aquifer, and everything to do with an even more sinister agenda that could keep the middle class in economic straits for a generation or more.

First, he wants to keep [fossil fuel] energy prices high, according to Thomas J. Pyle, CEO of the American Energy Alliance, in his January 20, 2012 FOXNews article.

“The reality at the White House has nothing to do with protecting the environment — it’s about reinforcing a myth of energy scarcity on the United States and driving up the price of energy.

For decades, one of the key tenets of environmental doctrine has been that the United States, and North America as a whole, is running out of affordable energy sources like oil, natural gas, and coal.

Yet the discovery of cost-effective oil production from Canadian oil reserves—as well as the large-scale deployment of shale [oil] technologies here in the U.S.—turns the environmentalists’ politics of energy scarcity on its head, and that is at the heart of the administration’s opposition to Keystone XL.

First, let’s quickly dispel the “environmental concerns” once and for all.

We had already identified the fact that TransCanada already operates an “existing” Canada-to-Texas, shale-oil Keystone Pipeline, a portion of which runs through the eastern section of the “sensitive” Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska–without there having been any environmental impact.

Now, we can offer an expanded perspective by viewing the U.S. map with pipeline routes overlaid, in Cristina Corbin’s FOXNews article from January 21, 2012, representing the nearly 2 million miles of energy pipeline criss-crossing the United States, 50,000 miles of which carry crude oil from wells located in all of the oil producing states in the nation, upon which the U.S. has been dependent for transmission of fossil fuel energy.

Now, compare that with a map of all of the aquifers in the National Atlas of the United States, which shows that these pipelines have been operating in proximity to sources of drinking water–including the Ogallala Aquifer–for decades.

“There’s no shortage of energy pipelines,” Dan Kish, senior vice president for policy at the Institute for Energy Research, told FoxNews.com. “This [Keystone XL] pipeline would be better than [the existing] 1.9 million miles of pipeline already in the United States. It’s newer and has the best technology.”

“We have tens of thousands of pipelines and I don’t think there’s any good evidence that pipelines are a significant impact on ecosystems to the point that they can’t adapt,” said Kenneth Green, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Kish and Green both said the transportation alternatives to a pipeline system, tanker ship, train or truck – all pose a considerably higher risk for accident and spillage.

Kim Huynh, a spokeswoman for Friends of the Earth, had said in Ms. Corbin’s article … “It will be environmentally and economically devastating if there were to be a spill.”

Unfortunately, both the probability and scale of her statement are unfounded by either fact or the vast recorded experience of pipeline performance–particularly the U.S.

The environmentalist’s new narrative, once they managed to get ANWR and coastal oil drilling banned in the U.S., is against the successful shale oil technology, which Ms. Huynh describes as [being] “the world’s dirtiest oil that needs to stay in the ground.”

Robert Schulz, a professor at the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business, disagrees, but recognizes that it is a popular “misperception” of environmental activists. Professor Schulz argued that testing proves the level of contaminants in Canadian oil–particularly CO 2–are reasonably similar to those coming from oil in both Venezuela and the Middle East.

Ms. Huynh’s phrase … “needs to stay in the ground,” is basically the naive environmentalist’s pushback against the reality of the Earth being fossil fuel driven–and will continue to be so for our lifetimes and beyond.

In stark contrast of what President Obama would like is to believe, we are not energy poor.

Recently, the Institute for Energy Research released The North American Energy Inventory, which pulls together data from government sources to prove that North America holds the world’s largest combined oil, coal, and natural gas resources in the world–enough oil in North America to fuel our present needs for 250 years.

In my opinion, our vast fossil fuel energy resources of the U.S., provides the perfect catalyst for our country to exit this terrible recession–just like the Soviet Union did ten years ago.

Energy natural resource exploitation was the primary catalyst that propelled the former Soviet Union, from being a broken nation that spent a “lost decade” from 1991 in the throws of transformation from communism to capitalism began by Mikhail Gorbachev. Then, in 1998 it defaulted on its national debt sending it into an economic spiral.

According to Thomas White Global Investing–Russia Country Profile, published in January 2011, the eight years between 1998 and 2006 have virtually been witness to an economic miracle, as Russian GDP expanded by an unprecedented 57.6%, while real income of the population grew by 65%. Poverty rates were cut by half and regional disparities toned down to a degree.

The inflation rate, which was as high as 47% in 1996 declined to 9.6% by 2006. High-energy prices, robust domestic demand, large foreign inflows, and macroeconomic reform enabled the economy to clock an impressive growth. Economic growth averaged above 6% between 2001 and 2008, touching a high of 8.1% in 2007.

In fact, right now, Russia’s economy is far outpacing our own, at an incredible growth rate of 4.8 percent in the third quarter of last year, according to TradingEconomics.com.

Russia boasts of abundant mineral resources, especially oil, natural gas, and coal reserves. It is the world’s largest oil producer and the second largest exporter after the OPEC, which has driven its GDP to 12th ranked in the world at $1.231 trillion per year.

The necessary sea change in national ideology is already underway in the U.S., and assuming Republicans have a clean sweep in the November 2012 elections, beginning in January 2013, we could engage and streamline the process of accessing our rich natural energy resources as the catapult to creating millions of new high-paying jobs, while lowering the cost of energy in the U.S. and insuring our energy independence from nations who fundamentally don’t like us.

Copyright (c) 2012 by Jeffrey Klein

01/23/12

Flawed Patriot Warriors

*Note from NoisyRoom: While my political leanings differ from Wayne’s, this is a great article and we have decided to publish it. I may not personally care for Gingrich, but if he becomes the nominee, he will have my vote. Anything to get rid of Barack Obama.

By: Wayne Leeper
A Land Called America

Beginning with our founding in 1776 and continuing to this day, America has faced numerous crises. Each time an individual has stepped forward to lead the resistance and return our cherished liberty and freedom. These shores of freedom have been endangered both from within and without. Without these special, though flawed, warriors who stepped forward in time of need, America today would likely still be a British colony with no Declaration of Independence, no Constitution and little freedom. These “shores of freedom” have been preserved, not by the moral and timid, but through the leadership of “Flawed Patriot Warriors.”

Among the first of these was George Washington, Commander of the Continental Army and our 1st president. Had it not been for the courage and dedication to liberty of George Washington, the American Revolution might well have failed. In his day he was considered one of America’s greatest patriot warriors. Yet, George Washington was engaged in one of the most brutal and reprehensible practices of his day; the ownership of other human beings. Slavery was openly practiced throughout the South and was considered an economic necessity. While Washington did free his slave in his will, he spent his entire lifetime using them to advance his economic goals. Even so, when the life of the young nation was at risk, Washington rose to the occasion as a flawed patriot warrior.

Thomas Jefferson penned our Declaration of Independence. Considered a genius in his own day, Jefferson, our 3rd president, was admired as one of the founding fathers of America. He is widely known for his dedication to freedom and liberty. We hear many patriots today quoting the inspiring words of Thomas Jefferson. The Jefferson monument in Washington, D.C. is one of the most impressive and most visited sites in our capital. Yet, in recent years, DNA testing has proven what was widely rumored during his lifetime. For a number of years, Jefferson carried out and adulterous relationship with a young slave girl named Sally Hemming. She was forced to comply with his desires and as a result bore him several illegitimate children. Even so, when the British Empire imposed impossible regulations on the colonies, Jefferson rose to become a flawed patriot warrior.

Benjamin Franklin was the only man to sign all four of our founding documents; the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Treaty of Tripoli. He is also revered as one of our founding fathers. Yet, because the lady he loved, Deborah Read had been married and never divorced, the two entered into an adulterous common law relationship. In addition, Franklin fathered an illegitimate son named William. Even during his lifetime, Franklin was noted for his wide spread philandering, both in America and Abroad. However, like Jefferson, the 71 year old Franklin took his stand along with the other flawed patriot warriors to found a nation of freedom.

In 1812, America was again attacked by the British Empire. Several battles were lost, yet the decisive battle was the Battle of New Orleans. In this battle, Andrew Jackson teamed up with the notorious pirate, Jean Lafitte. Jackson had moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1788 where became acquainted with Rachel Donelson Robards. At the time, Rachel Robards was in an unhappy marriage with Captain Lewis Robards. The two were separated in 1790. According to Jackson, he married Rachel after hearing that Robards had obtained a divorce. However, the divorce had never been completed, making Rachel’s marriage to Jackson technically bigamous and therefore invalid. After the divorce was officially completed, Rachel and Jackson remarried in 1794. To complicate matters further, evidence shows that Rachael had been living with Jackson and referred to herself as Mrs. Jackson long before the petition for divorce was ever made. Jackson gained a reputation as a quarrelsome and vengeful man. In 1806, Jackson shot and killed Charles Dickinson in a duel because he had written an article critical of Rachael. Lafitte has been described as “A man with a thousand vices and one virtue.” Nevertheless, he and Andrew Jackson defeated a far superior British army and saved America. Once again. two flawed patriot warriors stood together to save our nation. In 1829, America chose Jackson as our 7th president.

Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president, was revered as the man who preserved our nation during the bitter struggle known as the Civil War. Rising from being a backwoods lawyer, he rose to the highest position of power in America. The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. is a shrine to his greatness. What few know is that both during his presidency, and even now, rumors persist that Lincoln may have been homosexual. True or not, for most people perception is reality. He was considered arrogant, dictatorial and divisive, yet at a time of America’s greatest internal crises, Lincoln rose to become a flawed patriot warrior.

Franklin Roosevelt our 32nd president successfully brought America through the Great Depression. His leadership skills and political acumen comforted a nation during the most depressed of times. Famous for his “Fireside Chats with the Nation,” he successfully led the allies through WWII, although he did not live to see the final victory. Even so, Roosevelt was anything but a devoted husband. When Eleanor discovered Franklin’s adulterous relationship with her personal secretary, Lucy Mercer, she gave Franklin an ultimatum: stop seeing Lucy or she would obtain a divorce. Roosevelt did not want to sacrifice his political career, so he promised never to see his mistress again. However, Roosevelt continued to see Lucy over the years and was with her at the time of his death. Nevertheless, when the very economic system of America was on life support and WWII was raging in Europe, Roosevelt stepped forward to lead the nation as a flawed patriot warrior.

Dwight Eisenhower was considered one of the greatest military minds of his generation. As Supreme Allied Commander, Eisenhower led the allied forces to victory in WWII then returned home to become our 34th president. However, during his tour of duty in Europe, there is strong evidence that Eisenhower had an adulterous relationship with his driver, Kay Summersby. Even so, no one can deny his military competence, his strong leadership skills and his love of America. He was elected president in spite of the rumors of his infidelity. Once again Americans opted for a flawed patriot warrior to lead America during the peacetime recovery.

John F. Kennedy, our 35th president, was widely known for his various adulterous relationships. His relationships with Hollywood starlets, including Marilyn Monroe, were the least kept secretes in Washington. Yet he is considered to have been one of our better presidents. With regard to adultery, he was surpassed by our 42nd president, Bill Clinton who’s various adulterous relationships, including charges of rape, did not prevent him from being elected and re-elected. In both cases, the American public chose to overlook their flaws, and instead, opt for their leadership qualities.

Ronald Reagan, our 40th president is arguably one of the best presidents to ever occupy the Oval Office. He came at a time of great distress and high unemployment. A great malaise had settled over our nation. Many people believed America’s best days were in the past. The Republican elite argued that Reagan had no business experience, was a right wing radical, a class B actor and too divisive to ever unite the electorate and defeat Jimmy Carter. Their candidate was George H.W. Bush, a Washington insider and acceptable as one of them. Reagan ran on a platform of “Morning in America” and following his victory in the primaries, won a landslide victory over Jimmy Carter. However, like so many others patriot warriors, Reagan came with baggage. He was a member of the Hollywood class and in 1948, his first wife, Jane Wyman, had divorced him. He is the only US president to have been divorced and remarried. Yet, in spite of his “baggage,” Ronald Reagan stands with the best of our flawed patriot warriors and is today considered one of our greatest presidents.

Today America stands at a crossroads. It is for all practical purposes a repeat of 1980. America is faced with a choice. Once again the Republican elite have chosen their candidate. Once again the people have chosen their’s. We hear the same criticisms leveled at Newt Gingrich today as were leveled at Ronald Reagan in 1980. Newt is no angel, but he is a fierce fighter, though a flawed patriot warrior who will represent the people. The elite know this and want a “get along – go along “Massachusetts Moderate” who will not upset their positions of power. They fear Newt because they know he will. So, will it be the candidate of the Washington elite or the flawed patriot warrior? America’s choice will be reflected in Florida on January 31st.

01/23/12

The Fox News Feminists

By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media

As tens of thousands of Americans stage a “March for Life” against abortion in Washington, D.C., new Fox News Channel paid contributor Sally Kohn will be singing the praises of the abortion industry. Kohn, a lesbian feminist, is an alumnus of the Women’s Media Center, which celebrates the 39th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that struck down all laws against abortion.

Kohn, the latest addition to the “Fox News Family,” has argued that the Republican Party is trying to “kill women” by cutting funding for Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the U.S. The Women’s Media Center was founded in 2005 as a “progressive women’s media organization” by writers/activists Jane “Hanoi Jane” Fonda, Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem.

The goal of the Women’s Media Center in “making women visible and powerful in the media” has achieved a noticeable objective in the hiring of Sally Kohn by the Fox News Channel. But it’s not the only feminist breakthrough with Fox. Jehmu Greene, who became a Fox News contributor in 2010, is a former president of the Women’s Media Center. She is also a Democratic Party operative who was the national director of Project Vote, a group with close ties to the corrupt ACORN organization.

ACORN whistleblower Anita Moncrief, a former Project Vote/ACORN employee, says Project Vote acquired funds to run voter registration drives through ACORN. But the ACORN connection has been curiously omitted in Jehmu Greene’s bios, and she gets extremely upset when it is mentioned, Moncrief told Accuracy in Media.

Moncrief wrote about Greene’s previously unknown relationship to ACORN through Project Vote in a column, “Former ACORN insider infiltrates Fox News,” which appeared on the website Hot Air and other sites on September 7. “In 2006 ACORN was running a massive campaign across the country to raise the minimum wage,” she said. “Their efforts were tied in with Project Vote’s voter registration drive and the subsequent takeover of the House of Representatives by Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats.”

Moncrief goes on, “As a tax exempt nonprofit, Project Vote acquired funds to run ‘non-partisan’ voter registration drives but ‘contracted’ with partisan ACORN.” She reproduced a 2004 “Joint Effort Agreement” that provided legal cover for the two organizations “that, during my tenure, operated seamlessly as one.”

The Jehmu Greene connection to the corrupt entity is upsetting to Moncrief, who is trying to hold the organization and its operatives accountable. It is also upsetting, she said, because of Greene’s current employment at Fox News Channel, at a time when some conservative contributors to the channel have been writing and speaking critically about ACORN.

Moncrief wrote, “Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck and other Fox News personalities have been vilified in the mainstream media and threatened in their personal lives for exposing ACORN. It is an insult to them and average Americans to have a former ACORN insider using Fox News to espouse her liberal bias. From attacking Tim Tebow to smugly ‘representing’ blacks during segments called ‘Has Obama Abandoned the African-American Community?’ one has to question the judgment of Fox when folks like Walter Williams, Star Parker, Alfonzo Rachel and a host of others like them exist in the Conservative movement.”

Beck, of course, was fired from the channel last year after he did numerous exposés of the “progressive” community, including ACORN, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Soros-funded entities and Soros himself.

While Greene’s ACORN connection is just starting to attract media attention, Sally Kohn’s involvement in one of the leading Soros-funded groups, the Center for Community Change, is causing concern among long-time viewers of the popular cable channel. Many see her hiring as evidence of Soros acquiring control of, or influence over, the channel. Some believe Fox News is being blackmailed to accommodate the far-left.

The reaction to my January 19 column on this topic has been one of shock and surprise at Fox News hiring far-left personnel. Under the headline, “Fox News Hires Soros Subversive,” a reference to Kohn, Atlas Shrugs blogger Pamela Geller wrote, “Unbelievable. Rational voices are continually given the shaft, prohibited from the airwaves, and these agitators and subversives are given respect, salaries and the imprimatur of legitimacy. The right does not have ONE network. Not one.”

Described by one of her fans as “totally the next Rachel Maddow—only funnier,” Kohn once recorded a video mocking Glenn Beck for his political views, during which she claimed that Hitler and Mussolini were “conservative political heroes” and implying that Beck was a fascist. Kohn is now appearing regularly on the channel and writes for the channel’s popular website. Beck, on the other hand, now hosts an Internet TV program, GBTV.

On WorldNetDaily, which posted my column on Kohn’s official hiring as a member of the “Fox News Family,” the reaction included comments like this:

  • Looks like Fox News had fallen into the same black hole as the rest of the mass media. I wonder how much it cost Soros to buy Fox.
  • FOX has sold out to Soros, I am saddened by this.
  • Most likely Fox knuckled under to blackmail. Soros went after Murdoch’s Empire with the hacking investigation against News of the World using the left-wing Guardian newspaper.
  • Let’s see, they hired Juan Williams, kept Colmes and are hiring Kohn. Add them to Beckel, along with firing Beck, and it seems like Fox wants the liberal viewers more than they want to be “fair and balanced.”

Readers of my column at GOPUSA.com said:

  • We have been seeing a left turn by Fox News. I recommend GBTV, Glenn’s new network is looking good, and Glenn is back in great form. GBTV is more than worth the small subscription fee.
  • I have noticed this for a while. Every time I turn on Fox News there seems to be a new liberal guest commentator. If I wanted liberal I’d turn on MSNBC, so I rarely watch Fox anymore.
  • I think it’s fine to have reasonable liberals like Juan Williams and even Beckel on Fox News, but this woman has been bothering me and actually turning me off to Bill’s shows.
  • What a shame! We are so disappointed in Fox News…I wonder if Soros got to them as he did with Glenn Beck! What else is there to watch??? Maybe someone needs to start a new conservative cable news channel????

The popular Moonbattery blog, whose slogan is, “Driving a stake through the heart of the lunatic left,” commented, “Even with Geraldo Rivera, Shep Smith, Alan Colmes, Juan Williams, et al., the suits at Fox News apparently feel they don’t provide soapboxes to enough flaming moonbats to qualify as Fair and Balanced. Now they are importing George Soros-financed ultra-radical Rachel Maddow types. If we wanted to listen to leftists shriek, we would turn the channel to MSNBC. At least if Fox News goes full moonbat, we can save the money spent on cable bills by putting our TV sets out with the trash.”

Fox News Insider, the official blog of the Fox News Channel, hailed her addition to the line-up. It said, “Congratulations to the newest member of the Fox News Channel team, Sally Kohn. Today she joined Alisyn Camerota on America Live for the first time as a contributor. Kohn is the founder and chief education officer of the Movement Vision Lab.”

She has already written 20 columns for the Fox News website.

But the “Movement Vision Lab” appears not to exist. Clicking on the group’s website takes you to Kohn’s personal website.

The Movement Vision Lab was once a special project of the Center for Community Change, one of the major Soros-funded groups in the country. It was described as an effort “To create a space in which grassroots organizers and social justice activists can share, rate, and debate progressive, visionary ideas for the future.”

An old press release says the group’s blog would “include podcast interviews with prominent progressive leaders like Service Employees International Union head Andy Stern, who will discuss their ideas for the future.”

Stern has since left his leadership post at the SEIU to travel to Communist China on a junket paid for by the Soros-funded Center for American Progress. He wrote a column for the Wall Street Journal after the trip headlined, “China’s Superior Economic Model.” He praised China’s system of central government planning of the economy.

Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at [email protected].

01/23/12

Jim’s Quote of the Day

SurvivalBlog

“Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and at last some crisis shows what we have become.” – Brooke Foss Westcott