All Sides Wednesday
Some say it is impossible to run a nation or win a war when one is getting it from all sides.
I know it is impossible to run a blog when everything comes out so fast and furious.
Sure, I could spend all day blogging, but I like having a roof over my head and food on my table. One story a day is what you get.
Yet lately all fronts are being invaded.
I will hold off on the General McCrystal story until tomorrow. I think it would show significant growth on the president’s part if after he gave the general a (well deserved) tongue lashing, he refused his resignation.
One aspect of that story still surprises me.
People read Rolling Stone?
Rolling Stone reminds me of an aging rocker that refuses to accept that the audience long ago lost interest.
(This is not the case with the Rolling Stones, who still seem to be as great as ever.)
Rolling Stone still believes that it is hip, cool, and edgy, and that it actually matters. Like the Jayson Blair Times and Newsweek, Rolling Stone is another liberal rag trying to relive the glory days of the 1960s when there were not other outlets to explain how pathetic these soon to be dinosaurs were.
(Memo to Jon Stewart: You are next. You may have a few years left, but your snarky brand of leftism has already peaked and is receding.)
In celebrity news, Lady Blah Blah said…blah blah…if you care, you are an imbecile. Read something else.
The oil spill and the McCrystal situation have overshadowed some serious news on the judicial front. Judges made several decisions, all of them positive.
The first decision came from the Supreme Court. In a 6-3 ruling, the justices concluded that providing help to terrorists, even if the help itself is legal, is illegal. This fits in perfectly with the sensible notion aiding, financing, enabling, or supporting terrorists is just as vile as blowing things up.
Some will say this is a limit on free speech. Nonsense. Some people and nations are on banned lists. It is illegal to do business with them. Therefore, helping Hezbollah, for example, use our courts would be illegal because we cannot do business with them at all. It would be illegal to sell a Jihadist a pizza.
Lost in this story by the typically disgusting liberal media is that the vote was 6-3 and not 5-4. Plenty of focus was given to the dissenting justices, yet zero attention was paid to the fact that liberal lion John Paul Stephens sided with the conservatives. When one conservative sides with united liberals, the media calls that bipartisanship. Those conservatives are praised as having “grown.” Well this decision was bipartisan, and it is nice to know that Justice Stephens had the courage to put partisanship aside in favor of defeating third world savage Islamofascist barbarians.
Another correct decision came down from the court, and this one was a 9-0 ruling. A police officer used his company cellphone to text his wife and his girlfriend. The company publicized his texts, and he argued a right to privacy. Since the texts were not aborted, female privacy advocates refused to care.
The guy was a dope. Company property is exactly that. He could have used his own personal cellphone.
Look, I send salacious texts to my girlfriend. I plan to keep doing that as long as she is ok with it. It’s not my fault. She is hot. Guys like to send messages to hot girls. It also helps their lives if only one girl is receiving the messages.
Perhaps the liberal female justices on the court got this one right because they took delight in humiliating a cheating husband. Maybe the clock was blinking 12:00. Nevertheless, Sotomayor and Ginsburg actually got this one right. Statistical aberrations happen.
Before moving on, one note to my relatives (my girlfriend can ignore this, as can a couple of very close friends and important business people).
I hate texting.
When I receive a text from you, I want to beat the living daylights out of you. I want to rip that phone out of your hand, and smash it into little pieces. You think everything is important, and not one single text has ever reached that category. If I wanted to hear from you, I would have picked up the phone. I don’t, so I don’t.
Abusive texters are every bit as harmful to society as abusive drunks and drug addicts.
Ok, I am veering off track. I should not text and type. Back to politics.
Another judicial decision with potentially far reaching implications is the judge who blocked President Obama’s moratorium on offshore drilling.
The left will howl that the judge was appointed by President Reagan, therefore making his decision sinister and politically motivated. After all, it is not like the left has been using the courts for decades to screw up society and thwart the will of the people. Oh wait, never mind. Yes it is.
(The left can shut up about civil rights. They got that one right, and have not gotten anything right since. In that sense they are like Rolling Stone magazine, living off the glory days of relevance.)
I am wondering if the incredibly thin skinned current president will bash the court, or for once accept that somebody can disagree with him without being evil.
This was not judicial activism. It was judicial restraint on executive activism and overreach. The president will appeal the decision, but in the mean time drilling is allowed. Drilling should commence this second before the Obama administration successfully court shops for a favorable appeals court.
With all of these rulings coming down, it is important that the Elana Kagan confirmation hearings not get lost in the shuffle. I spoke to Utah Senator Orrin Hatch the other day, and he stated that there as no way the hearings would be delayed.
The War in Afghanistan is important. So is cleaning up the oil spill. Yet 30 to 40 years from now, the country we want to be will be shaped by whether John Roberts is still in the majority or Elana Kagan and her liberal cohorts hijack the rule of law.
Remember, Elana Kagan has compared the KKK to the NRA. This is to be expected from a woman with no judicial experience, nominated by a faltering executive with no executive experience. Elana KKKagan will coast to confirmation if Republicans don’t scream at the top of their lungs for restraint and patience. Ms. KKKagan feels that the Robert Bork hearings were ideal. Time to turn the tables. Republicans will most likely be too gutless to take her on. Perhaps gun owners can remind her that the Second Amendment to the Constitution does not endorse lynchings or any other Klan hobbies.
I would say more, but so much is happening so fast. I am getting it from all sides.
Like the rest of you, I will sit back, wait, and report when appropriate.
eric
June 23rd, 2010 at 12:15 pm
The decision on the moratorium looks very bad. this judge is heavily vested in the companies involved in the case. He should have recused himself. It was also a starly and purely political decision, not based one the law, but on the perceived polticial will of the people. This was both obvious “judicial activism” and plain old crooked jurisprudence. the man should be disbarred. I find it inceredibly hypocritical of the Righties that they support this one. Just because something falls in your favor doesn’t mean that it’s right. The ends do not always justify the means. You guys are really living a total moral vacuum these days. If I were religous, I’d pray for your immortal souls.
JMJ
June 23rd, 2010 at 3:08 pm
McChrystal’s out. Enter Petraeus.
JMJ
June 23rd, 2010 at 6:58 pm
‘He should have recused himself. It was also a starly and purely political decision, not based one the law, but on the perceived polticial will of the people. ‘
yeah right.
I read his decision which is based on what the ramifications of a moratorium would be on individual lives and the economy.
“Judge Martin Feldman ruled against the Federal ban, he wrote that the Obama Administration had failed to justify the need for the sweeping suspension. Judge Feldman said the moratorium was “generic, indeed punitive”.
Judge Feldman went on to write that “the blanket moratorium, with no parameters, seems to assume that because one rig failed and although no one yet fully knows why, all companies and rigs drill new wells over 500 feet also universally present an imminent danger.”
Yeah, so lets drive up the price of oil putting thousands “MORE” out of work, drive up the price of virtually everything to the point we have a class warfare of the “haves and have nots” resulting in hundreds of seniors and lower income families either freezing to death starving to death or sweating their a$$es to death.
Theres nothing to think about except for how fast we can get alternatives to the market in a finacially feasable manner for commerce and households.
Until then…we drill
First y’all wanted to boycott Arizona thereby screwing those you say you care so much about, then wanted to boycott BP ito bankruptcy so those entitled to compensation can never collect, now y’all want to shut down a major source of production for 6 months that would send unemployment over 10% rubbing salt on an already gapingly wounded economy and people.
Regardless of profits which are only 4 to 10% in the industry, environmentalists pushed to move platforms to deeper waters.
The only reason we see the massive profits in oil is due to the sheer volume being sold as I want to know who doesnt use oil ?
Soros has no problem wanting to ship the exact same kind of platforms to Brazil. All 32-34 of em
Do you have an extra 330 million a month to pay riggers unemployment ?
Would that money not serve us best in recovery and aid to the victims ?
Are we more safe with less oil ?
Did you read the judges reasoning ?
What will you replace that shortage with ?
Are you willing to pay for 6-7.00 dollar gas ?
Do we actually know what caused the accident ?
Are the other rigs just as dangerous ?
How many have actually blown up ?
Is it practical ?
So we go back to drilling 6 months from now. WHAT DIFFERENCE would it make ?
It would take much longer to retrofit all rigs if thats whats needed.
If you’re gonna do it then do it right and shut down every platform on earth in the water !
If we shut those rigs down for 6 months they will not stay where they’re at, they’re mobile, they’ll be moved never to be seen again. Does anyone understand those implications ?
The problem will be nationwide and no longer constrained to the gulf.
Me myself dont have half as much sympathy for the humans as I do the animals and the environment itself.
Humans can adapt, move, find new jobs, we have options, no humans have died as a result of the spill. The animals and other life forms are stuck n f****d big time. With that said any moratorium is just senseless grandstanding that can only pacify rebelious agendas that will only make worse a dire situation.
The rigs will only be re-located to countries with far less stringent standards. It costs about 5 mil to relocate a rig. An idle rig costs 500,000.00 bucks a day to maintain not accounting for lost production revenues.
The judge is right.
Also, if anyone thinks every oil company on this planet is not looking at all their safety mechanisms with a microscope and attending any potential malfunction right now they’re just not that bright.
June 23rd, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Micky,
You just proved that the decision was political and not judicial. You just proved it. Do you read what you write sometimes?
The moratorium effects 33 WELLS. 33 FRIGGIN’ WELLS. Including exploratories. That’s 33 out of 36-friggin’-hunfred. 33/3600ths. Less than 1%. And this OBVIOUSLY lying, OBVIOUSLY crooked judge said, “the blanket moratorium, with no parameters, seems to assume that because one rig failed and although no one yet fully knows why, all companies and rigs drill new wells over 500 feet also universally present an imminent danger.”
And then you, who OBVIOUSLY has no knowledge of the moratorium you’re supposed to be against, say “Yeah, so lets drive up the price of oil putting thousands “MORE” out of work.” Thousands??? Really??? Micky, IT’S 33 FRIGGIN’WELLS! What the ^%$@ are you talking about???
JMJ
June 23rd, 2010 at 11:52 pm
Jersey.
Do you think before you yap ?
These are platforms that effect “AMERICAN” jobs.
33 “FRIGGIN” wells do in “FACT”: employ thousands of workers from the riggers themselves to the transport boats, the suppliers of materials, the truck drivers, the refineries, the equpiment manufacturers. The collateral employment humongous !!!
What ? You think the oil just popcorn farts its way from the rig to your gas tank ?
By the way. Any “FRIGGIN” idiot knows damn well this judge has no jurisdiction over the thousands of wells you mentioned…
try again
June 24th, 2010 at 12:11 am
Heres U.K oil related employment stats.
http://www.oilandgasuk.co.uk/employment.cfm
n 2008, some 450,000 jobs throughout the UK were supported by the servicing of activity on the UKCS and in the export of oil and gas related goods and services around the world.
•The exploration for and extraction of oil and gas from the UKCS accounted for around 350,000 of these, comprising:
◦34,000 directly employed by oil and gas companies and their major contractors
◦230,000 within the wider supply chain
◦89,000 jobs were supported by the economic activity induced by employees’ spending.
•In addition, a thriving exports business is estimated to support a further 100,000 jobs.
•Whilst the oil and gas industry provides work across the whole of the UK, Scotland benefits the most, with around 195,000 jobs, or 44% of the total. 21% of the workforce is from South East England, 15% from the North of England and 12% from the East of England.
•Each £1 billion spent on the UKCS supports approximately 20,000 jobs.”
getting the picture ?
June 24th, 2010 at 2:13 am
Micky, whatever the number of jobs (if it’s in the “thousands” it’s only a few), it’s not worth any more of this kind of drilling until we know what the risks are for the Gulf. The damage that’s been done already has affected FAR more jobs. We’re talking THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of tourist industry jobs and fishing industry jobs being wiped out. We haven’t seen even the tip of that iceberg yet. We can handle a few thousand less drilling jobs. We can’t handle millions of barrels of oil in the Gulf. Heck, we can out them to work cleaning up the mess.
This notion that temporarily shutting down 33 mostly exploratory wells will wreck havoc on the economy is the single stupidest thing I’ve heard from conservatives all year - and that’s saying alot! hey! Geniuses! have you looked at the Gulf lately???
JMJ
June 24th, 2010 at 5:45 am
There are a few isolated locations along the Gulf that are completely trashed, and time and money will be kind to these areas and the affected locals. BP has hus far committed unwarranted billions for the likely millions of dollars of damages. Just because CNN focuses their cameras on a select few sites, and keeps interviewing tax cheat wanna bes, doesn’t mean the crisis is as big as it really is. If it’s that huge, why is our government so slow to react? More on that in a minute… Example of tax cheats: a fisherman files tax returns showing a profit of $30,000 last year. He expects BP to pay him $150,000 for lost business this year. It makes sense to the current administration because most of them are tax cheats.
On the military front, Counterinsurgency (COIN) requires Commitment, Unity of Command, and Patience. We established a timeline for withdrawal which negates commitment. We have conflicting arguments/guidance from Eikenberry, Holbrooke, and Biden, to include trashing Karzai - as John McCain once said, “some things you just don’t say out loud”. Finally, the only patience we have seen from the WH is letting oil spew all over the place, suggesting a potential agenda for the aftermath (i.e. let no crisis go to waste)… Having said that, it was a good call on Jersey’s part to name Petraeus…it’s the taint and paint strategy…there is one viable candidate on the horizon to give Obama a shake up in two years, and that’s GEN Petraeus. So, he gets demoted to Afghan Commander but is still saddled with Eikenberry, Holbrooke, Biden, and a timeline…
June 24th, 2010 at 11:55 am
“We can handle a few thousand less drilling jobs.”
No offense, but I gotta say thiis. What are you ” f-ing stupid ?
Do you not realize the collateral employment that comes from the oil industry in the gulf ?
After tourism and seafood the next biggest employer is oil you loon !
You guys quite frankly should either lead, follow, or shut the hell up and get out of the way already. The ineptness of this administration and its inability to do anything is becoming increasingly astoundingly disgusting.
The ywo top employments in the guld have been wiped out so now you’re shooting for the third.
One could only think that you’re intentionally trying to create a welfare state while freeing up 33 rigs for Soros to move down to Brazil so Petrobras can anchor and lease them there.
I’m sure Barry owes George one or two favors.
And who has to pay the 330 million a month in claims to unemployed oil workers ?
BP
Why should BP have to pay it ?
They imposed no moratorium.
The judge was right and his decision, instead of being political, his decision actually rejects the sleazy politics of this administration and does something for the working man and the gulf states economies as a whole
You’d think you’d stand behind that but with your nose so far up Barrys a$$ I guess hypocrisy in cause becomes a mainstay.
No one knows exactly what caused the rig to blow.
Could of been one drunk derrick operator for all we know and you loons want to shut down every deep water platform costing 1/2 a million a day to maintain with no production taking the world supply down forcing prices up thereby screwing everyone into higher prices on everything
Good grief. Can anyone be more stupid ?
June 24th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
Strippers in NOLA want BP to pay them reparations for lost traffic.
Maybe BP could just put a guy out in front of each club and have him hand every patron a stack of one dollar bills