Ready For The REALLY BIG SHOW Thursday Night?

Ready For The REALLY BIG SHOW Thursday Night?

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

Sorry folks.  If you are expecting anything of substance Thursday night from our currently serving President – FORGET ABOUT IT!

The whole thing is a show.  The President is using the “people’s house” as a backdrop for future election campaign commercials and a set-up to blame the GOP controlled House of representatives for every blessed thing wrong with the country that he cannot blame on George W. Bush.

The Congress should never have approved a joint resolution to allow Obama to come into their house and “dis” them as I expect he is about to do, either Thursday night, or very soon, in his campaign speeches and political ads.

We told our readers soon after Obama was elected that he was a puppet and had no clue what he was doing.  We referred to the movie ”The Candidate” in which the candidate utters the unforgettable line: “What Now?” upon winning his election.

Well, dear reader, we are living in a “told you so” moment.

We elected the least qualified man to ever inhabit the office of the President of the United States … and we did not expect THIS to happen?

If you are still looking for someone to blame for the god-awful shape America is in today, and you actually voted for Obama – then look in the mirror.  YOU DID THIS!   You cannot blame this on Bush, the Japanese earthquake, hurricanes, Osama bin Laden, Iraq, Afghanistan, or any other straw you seem to be grasping at.  No.  This one is all YOURS.  So man-up -- and OWN IT!

The Obama Show we are all to be bombarded with, at least through the Sunday talking head shows, will be used as a bludgeon against the GOP by the mainstream media.  That is Obama’s intent. This is Chicago politics, folks.  They begin their campaigns with the gloves off.

I have to admit that I get chills down my spine every time I read or hear how badly the Republicans are going to defeat Obama in 2012.  Don’t believe it.  If Republicans win the Presidency in 2012 – it will be by the skin of their teeth!  No matter how bad the economy is, Obama’s shock troops, the labor unions, plus the mainstream media, and every “protected minority” in America will scratch and claw, while using every tool at their command, including the racism card, to see that Obama regains his seat in the Oval Office in November of 2012.

In the spirit of full disclosure: I am one of those SOB’s that union boss was railing about on Labor Day.  Oh, allow me to add that I am proud of it!

The one time in my life that I can recall saying something in support of labor unions, my father “backhanded” me right in the mouth.  In an instant, I found myself on my backside, on the floor, with two swollen lips and a spinning head.  I was in my teens at the time.  But I grew up and when I became a man, I put away childish things -- such as looking favorably upon labor unions.

The union’s thuggish crudity, on display this past Labor Day, only validates the attitude adjustment my father administered to this scribe many decades ago.

Conservative voters must be ready for a down and dirty, rolling in the gutter, bare-knuckle campaign from Obama that will seek not just to defeat GOP candidates but to utterly destroy those candidates. 

The Thursday address by Obama (before the Joint Session of Congress) is an in your face attempt at intimidating the GOP.  Obama is setting the stage to blame the Congress for not passing all the hair brained schemes he and his brain trusts have been able to come up with over the past few weeks.  In fact, I believe they are hoping against hope that the GOP will not pass a single item in his ”plan.”  A defeat of his plan would suit his purpose far more than even a partial victory.  Obama desperately needs SOMEONE – ANYONE – to blame for his total lack of leadership ability.

America is on the cusp of a double dip recession.  In fact, a number of economists think we are already in the second dip.  If we DO slip into that downward spiral again, the tough times America has suffered in the past few years will seem more like a golden age of plenty.  I can only hope this taste of American-style socialism will make Americans ever vigilant and defensive against another Obama-like candidate in the future.

In the meantime, get the popcorn and soda ready for the really big show Thursday night.  Oh.  You might want to have some “Pepto” at the ready,  as well.

J. D. Longstreet

Poll: Americans understand economy needs domestic energy production

Commentary by James H. Shott

A Gallup poll in March reflected that Americans believe the nation should prioritize the development of energy supplies over protecting the environment when the two goals are at odds by a 50 to 41 percent margin. The survey included 1,021 adults 18 and older chosen by random-digital-dial sampling, with a 95-percent confidence level.

Most polls are just a snapshot in time, but this one reflects a four-year trend of attitude reversal.

In 2007, the segment that preferred protecting the environment even if it meant limiting energy production measured 58 percent of the sample, against 34 percent, and that percentage has been falling ever since, to 50 percent in 2008, then 47 percent, then 43 percent and now 41 percent.

Their strong preference for conservation of energy supplies over increased production has likewise fallen, from 64 percent pro-conservation and 26 percent pro-production, to 48 percent pro-conservation and 41 percent pro-production. However, the poll also showed a 66 to 26 percent preference for development of alternative energy over increased fossil fuel production over the longer term.

Boiling all of that down, it shows that Americans who participated in these polls over the last four years are pretty sensible people. They understand that current economic circumstances –stubbornly high unemployment, with no relief in sight, and GDP that is languishing at 0.4 percent in the first quarter of 2011, rising to 1.0 percent in the second quarter – require that the country stay with proven energy sources and increase domestic production at least until the economy recovers.

They realize that the country badly needs to create jobs and they understand that increasing domestic energy production will serve that purpose. Currently, there are substantial oil and gas resources that are off-limits, and the American Petroleum Institute believes that opening up access to them would increase both jobs and tax revenues, and has a study by Wood Mackenzie that backs that up. The study shows that 530,000 jobs and $150 billion in revenues would result by 2025 from loosening the restrictions on producing domestic energy. There is no impetus in the Obama administration to follow this course, however, and in fact it prefers heavy regulation, drilling bans and foot-dragging bureaucracy that have the opposite effect.

Most everyone understands that if we can meet our energy needs by burning less fossil fuel, we certainly should do so, a point reflected in the Gallup polling. However, for it to make any sense at all to change the balance between conventional and alternative sources, alternative energy must be economical and as effective as the fossil fuels it replaces. And that is where the problem with “green” energy lies.

That point is underscored by what happened in Texas during this summer’s heat wave, where the state’s wind turbines failed to perform adequately to combat the extreme heat. As explained by Robert Bryce, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, writing for National Review Online, “Texas has 10,135 megawatts of installed wind-generation capacity, which is nearly three times as much as any other state. And yet, on [August 24], all of the state’s wind turbines mustered just 880 megawatts of power when electricity was needed the most. Put another way, even though wind turbines account for about 10 percent of Texas’s 103,000 megawatts of summer electricity-generation capacity, wind energy was able to provide just 1.3 percent of the juice the state needed … to keep the lights on and the air conditioners humming.” Climate reality: When the temperature rises, the wind slows down.

However, there is a good bit of positive news around right now, such as The Wall Street Journal’s report that “the U.S. Geological Survey said that Cook Inlet [Alaska] likely holds about 19 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas—nearly nine times more than the last estimates, made in 1995—as well as 600 million barrels of oil.” Since natural gas burns cleaner than coal or oil, this discovery makes it possible to reduce the use of dirtier-burning fuels.

And the British Broadcasting Company reports that scientists say that there was a mysterious decline in the growth of methane in the atmosphere in the last decades of the 20th Century, and that human activities are a factor in the positive change in the levels of what is regarded as one of the most potent greenhouse gases.

“Researchers writing in the journal Nature have come up with two widely differing theories as to the cause,” the BBC reported. “One suggests the decline was caused by greater commercial use of natural gas, the other that increased use in Asia of artificial fertilizer was responsible.” At a time when science, sometimes corrupt science, tells us mankind is killing the climate, here’s science telling us we have actually helped it.

The Gallup poll shows Americans believe we need to focus on developing alternative energy to replace fossil fuels, but they also believe that in the current economic situation we need to increase development of domestic energy supplies to lower prices, increase energy independence, and to put thousands of oil and gas workers back to work. If only the politicians could figure this out.

Cross-posted from Observations

Gibson Guitar vs. The Obama Regime

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

Since 2009 Gibson Guitars, one of the leading manufacturers of guitars has been persecuted by the Obama Administration over "tainted wood".  It seems that some of the wood that Gibson uses is manufactured in a way that violates India's laws.  Yes I did write INDIA.  The country.  Not Indiana, the state.

Last week, heavily armed federal agents raided two guitar manufacturing facilities in Tennessee owned by Gibson — one in Nashville, another in Memphis. The feds were not acting on a tip that an al Qaeda cell was holed up in the buildings; or that Mexican drug cartel gangs were lurking inside. It was actually something far more serious; far more serious, that is, to a bunch of federal bureaucrats with nothing better to do.

The raids were carried out because the Department of Justice and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claim that parts of the iconic guitars manufactured in the plants contained the wrong kind of imported wood. And, although the feds have not made clear to Gibson just what it has done wrong, the government appears also to be claiming the guitar parts might have been exported to the U.S. contrary not to American laws, but to certain domestic laws of the countries exporting the parts to the United States!

One of the laws at play here is the hundred-year old Lacey Act, passed during the “Progressive Era,” and intended to promote conservation and as a crackdown on illegal trafficking in wildlife. The law also makes it a crime for a company to violate the laws or regulations of other countries. In this particular case, Gibson’s attorneys surmise it may be the law of India they are charged with misinterpreting or violating.

The Justice Department apparently believes the wood in question, used to construct fret boards for Gibson’s popular instruments, was imported from India without having first been “finished” by Indian workers; actions that could be considered a violation of that country’s byzantine legal code.

According to a press release from Gibson, the agents “seized several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars.” Juszkiewicz estimated the loss of raw materials alone to be $1 million; obviously not including financial losses due to the inability to produce guitars from those materials.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Gibson has been subjected to the overreaching, punitive arm of the federal government. In 2009, the Nashville facility was raided in similar fashion, based on accusations that rosewood imported from Madagascar and used in guitars, came from illegal logging. And, despite the fact that to this day, the government has not filed formal charges against Gibson, it has refused to return the company’s property.

Gibson has engaged in extensive and costly efforts to recover its property from that raid two years ago; including the filing of a civil lawsuit. In the civil proceedings, the company presented proof, including statements from the Madagascar government, that the wood was obtained legally. Still, the federal government refuses to budge; and now, with these second and third raids, appears intent on trying to put Gibson out of business completely.

These highly publicized actions by the federal government have ramifications for any musician owning a guitar made out of certain woods by overzealous federal agents of having been obtained illegally at some point in the manufacturing process (even if years ago and by a prior owner or manufacturer). The Wall Street Journal notes that owners of vintage guitars made out of now-banned or regulated woods had “better have correct and complete documentation proving the age of the instrument. Otherwise, you could lose it to a zealous customs agent – not to mention face fines and prosecution.”

Gibson’s obviously frustrated CEO, who noted during a press conference the day of the raid that every guitar his company builds could possibly be considered criminal in nature, given the widely disparate countries from which the various woods are imported and in various states of manufacture; and considering the difficulty – if not impossibility – of correctly interpreting every relevant law of every one of those countries.

The government’s treatment of this American company – one of the few bright spots in domestic manufacture of musical instruments – is disgraceful, counterproductive, and mean-spirited.

In 2000, Charlton Heston, then serving as president of the National Rifle Association, and fighting gun control proposals, held a flintlock rifle over his head and declared famously, “from my cold dead hands.” Gibson’s CEO needs to rally freedom-loving Americans similarly; raising a Les Paul Gibson guitar over his head. All Americans who believe in freedom and limited government should come to Gibson’s defense; not just those who are guitar players.

Source

It is just coincidental that Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz has been a donator to Republican candidates and not to Barack Obama's election or now his reelection.  Mr. Juszkiewicz was informed by the government that they would drop all the charges against his company and return the property that was seized if he moved his production plants to Madagascar.  That means 500 American jobs destroyed and lost to an overseas company.  Thus we witness Obama's jobs program in true action.  Creation of jobs not here at home, but abroad.  Just don't take my word for it, but listen to Henry Juszkiewicz himself:

DTRT Radio Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz 09/02 by CP n Annieb | Blog Talk Radio

During the Clinton Administration this type of investigation and misuse of power was a regular occurrence.  To Barack Hussein Obama this is just normal Chicago Politics.  To the American people this is just wrong. It is time to call your Congressman, your Senator.  How many more American jobs will Sheik Obama send overseas?

September 20th Set For Bid For Palestinian Statehood at the UN

September 20^th Set For Bid For Palestinian Statehood at the UN

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

The creation of a Palestinian state will do nothing to bring stability to the Middle East region.  In fact, there will be more war, more instability, and more suffering.

A Palestinian state would effectively open up a front that starts ten miles from Tel Aviv and reaches 1,000 miles deep across the Arabian Peninsula to Teheran. That, alone, will be cause for Israel to go on their highest military alert and stay there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In other words… all the time. 

The buffer zone Israel counts on to give her time to activate her reserves and get them mobilized will no longer exist.  That short period of time, so vital for the defense of Israel, will be gone.  Therefore, Israel will have no choice but to adopt what, for all practical purposes, will be a “state of war” as a normal, everyday, lifestyle.

There is a school of thought, in Israel, which says Israel would not be the first target of a Palestinian State military.  That distinction, according to this theory, must go to the country of Jordan whose population is 80% Palestinian.  This line of thinking has it that the Palestinians will want to complete the coup against the Hashemite Kingdom they began back in 1970.

A new Palestinian State will certainly want to clear the region of its one remaining moderate, western-oriented Arab state.  Once that job is completed and their military enlarged by the “Jordanian/Palestinians,” THEN they can turn their attention to Israel.

How dimwitted is it for the US to put any trust in the government of a state whose children’s textbooks teach “holy war” against Israel? 

Lets see:  Right now we have Libya, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, and Afghanistan giving The United States a pain in the posterior and the Obama Regime is dead set on adding even more trouble with a state of Palestine?  Again, I ask, how dimwitted is this? 

But, I forget!  We have the “creame de la creame” in DC, the “best and the brightest” of the academicians, many of whom seem to be educated beyond their collective abilities, concocting these schemes from left-wing dreams of “group-hugs” among nations.

So, we must ask ourselves just how prepared are the Arabs (aka Palestinians) for statehood, anyway?  Has there been any preparation for oh, say, industrialization?  How about their work on developing export markets?  Have they given any thought to negotiating trade arrangements with their next-door neighbor, Israel? I think we all know the answer to all the above is… NO. 

So, it is safe, then, to assume that a state of Palestine would be wracked with poverty which will require billions of dollars in foreign aid from which the chieftains will bleed off their shares and get rich while piling up hordes of cash in numbered bank accounts far from the Middle East.

A recent report from Arutz Sheva(www.IsraelNationalNews.com) said the following: “ … Meanwhile on Wednesday, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren said the PA statehood bid would likely jeopardize all existing agreements between the PA and Israel.


In an interview with Foreign Policy magazine, Oren said the move would render invalid economic treaties, including export, import, and water sharing, as well as security cooperation agreements.


Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Wednesday the statehood bid at the United Nations is a greater threat to Israel than terrorism.


“This Palestinian initiative represents a more serious threat than that posed by Hamas,” Steinitz told Voice of Israel radio.”


Too, there is the very real concern that should the UN grant Palestine statehood, Iran will very quickly turn it into an Iranian state.  The conflagration we are experiencing in the Middle East today is a stroll in the park compared to what would happen with Iran and Israel sharing a common border.

No, a Palestinian state will only ensure the continuation of war, terrorism, and bloodshed.  The one thing we can be sure of is -- it will not bring anything resembling peace to the Middle East.

J. D. Longstreet

Obama Abusing The Bully Pulpit

Obama Abusing The Bully Pulpit

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress concerning jobs is nothing more that a campaign speech.  This is more of Obama abusing the powers of the Office of the President and conservatives in the Congress should boycott it.  It is just high political theatre and frankly it is another tasteless move by the White House.

Scheduling the speech on the same evening as the GOP debate at the Reagan Library (the first debate in which Rick Perry will take part) is a deliberate maneuver to create a press boycott of the debate.  It is juvenile and heavy handed.  It is beneath the Office of the Presidency.  As we folks down south say:  “It is tacky!” 

The White House’s explanation that the scheduling was merely a coincidence is pure bovine scatology!  See, the President, and his coterie of imps, continue to believe that you and I are so dumb we will believe that sort of elementary school pabulum.  It is out and out nonsense.

I urge the House of Representatives to refuse passage of the resolution allowing the President to speak to a joint session.  It is certain the Senate will pass such a resolution. But in order for the event to happen, BOTH houses of Congress must pass the resolution.  I hope the House has the good sense to deny it passage.

Speaker Boehner sent a letter to President Obama in which he said the following:  “As you know, the House of Representatives and Senate are each required to adopt a Concurrent Resolution to allow for a Joint Session of Congress to receive the President.  And as the Majority Leader announced more than a month ago, the House will not be in session until Wednesday, September 7, with votes at 6:30 that evening.”  The Speaker continued:  “It is my recommendation that your address be held on the following evening [Thursday], when we can ensure there will be no parliamentary or logistical impediments that might detract from your remarks.”  (You may read the entire letter from Speaker Boehner to President Obama HERE.)

It looks like what it is:  A bully in the Bully Pulpit! 

I get the feeling this President actually LIKES throwing his weight around.  He never misses a chance to remind us HE is the President with his multiple usage of the words “me” and “I” and “mine.”

In his letter to the Congress, the President said:  ““It is my intention to lay out a series of bipartisan proposals that the Congress can take immediately to continue to rebuild the American economy by strengthening small businesses, helping Americans get back to work, and putting more money in the paychecks of the Middle Class and working Americans, while still reducing our deficit and getting our fiscal house in order.”  Obama continued by saying:  “It is our responsibility to find bipartisan solutions to help grow our economy, and if we are willing to put country before party, I am confident we can do just that.” (SOURCE)

It is pure boilerplate.  It is just more of the same.

The President wants the American people to perceive him as doing something.  In fact his “doing something” is what has kept the country in a mess and made that mess even messier.  His actions and that of his regulatory agencies and his democrat cohort in the Senate have created an atmosphere of uncertainty in the American business community and frozen business in its tracks.  Business cannot grow and jobs in the private sector cannot be created when risk is perceived to be too high due to the uncertainty the Obama Administration has brought down on the job creators in America.

If, and when, Obama and his regulatory agencies get out of the way, the American economy will grow by leaps and bounds.  Jobs will not be created until that happens.

OK.  Obama has proven he knows how to create government jobs.  But those jobs have only made private job creators even more reluctant to put their necks and their cash on the line.

Look.  It is becoming ever clearer as the days go by that America is frozen in place until the Obama Administration is shown the door. American business is ready to roar back to life.  They are in a leaning forward posture … but … not until Obama and his administration is out of the way.

Whatever Obama says in his speech to the joint session of Congress will be of no import to anyone but Obama and his campaign. 

We have warned time and again that this campaign will likely be the dirtiest in history.  Obama’s shock troops, the labor unions, don’t mind rolling in the gutter to get their man across the finish line first.

Republicans had better sit up and take notice.  The GOP had better field a nominee with the ability to fight with bare knuckles and even hit below the belt when it is advantageous.  This campaign will make a barroom brawl look like a Sunday School picnic. 

The GOP needs a brawler not a mild mannered impeccably coiffed, manicured, “nice guy” with a gleaming smile.  What is called for is a nominee to carry the GOP banner and attack, attack, and attack, and keep Obama reeling and unable to organize a counter-attack.  You can be sure the democrats will adopt the aforesaid strategy.  And they are darned good at it. 

America needs a warrior and not a limp-wristed lawyer to lead this nation back to her place as the engine of democracy and the guiding light for all men everywhere who seek freedom and a fair shake at fulfilling their dreams.

We NEED America back.  The WORLD NEEDS America back.

J. D. Longstreet