Category: Politics

  • Obama’s Selective Service Card Forged?

    Say it ain’t so Joe.

    “America’s toughest sheriff” says there is “tons” more potentially shocking information on Barack Obama in connection with his probe into the president’s eligibility, and he calls the media’s suppression of his findings of a likely forged presidential birth certificate and Selective Service Card “probably the biggest censorship blackout in the history of the United States.”

    via WND.

    The video tells the story better than I could:
    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHAM3hRI8_Y?rel=0]

  • IMF Chief: Oil Supply Matters

    Yesterday I wrote about the latest meme to come out of the White House: that the president cannot control oil prices.  This is of course ridiculous.  Should the president choose a path that would increase supply — even if not immediately — the price of oil would go down.

    Everyone knows that while the oil market (like all markets) can be manipulated, in the end when supply outpaces demand prices go down; and when supplies are tight relative to demand prices go up.

    More proof:

    IMF chief Christine Lagarde warned Tuesday that crude oil prices may spike by up to 30 percent if Iranian supplies were disrupted, causing “serious consequences” for the global economy.

    The standoff between Iran, the world’s second-largest supplier of oil, and the West over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program is seen as a flashpoint that could sharply increase world crude prices.

    “Clearly it would be a shock to economies if there was a major shortage of exports of oil out of Iran, it would certainly drive up prices for a period of time,” Lagarde told reporters in New Delhi, wrapping up a two-day visit.

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has calculated that an interruption in oil supplies from Iran could increase oil prices by 20 to 30 percent, said Lagarde, who arrived in India at the weekend from neighbouring China.

    via FRANCE 24.

  • Ayers Family Put ‘Foreigner’ Obama Through School

    Hulton says that in conversations with Mary Ayers while on his route he learned of the couple’s enthusiasm and support for a black foreign student. One bright, warm Chicagoland day, he recounts, he met the student who fit Mary Ayers’ description in front of the Ayers home in Glen Ellyn, Ill. That young man, Hulton is convinced, was Barack Obama.

    Hulton delivered mail to the Ayers, who are both deceased, when he was stationed at the post office in Glen Ellyn, an upper-middle class suburb 25 miles west of downtown Chicago, from late 1986 to 1997. He was a USPS employee from March 28, 1962, through March 30, 2001.

    via WND.

    Simply amazing.  The MSM… asleep at the wheel.

    Everyone should go read this story and decide from themselves.

  • A President’s Control of Oil Prices

    A new meme is carefully being inserted into society: that a president generally, and Obama specifically, cannot control oil prices.   Like all good lies there is just enough truth in this meme in order to not make it laughable.  The notion is absolutely true in the short term (Obama cannot make $2.50/gal gas appear overnight, or even in a few months) but over the long term however, a President can have remarkable sway over oil prices.

    Who knows where the meme started but it’s just about everywhere now: Bloomberg, CNN, MSNBC, … even some cannabis and psychedelic drug using blogger.  So the idea’s getting around.

    Bloomberg wants to blame the oil refineries:

    Actually, the President doesn’t have that kind of pricing power. The more likely reason behind the price increase, though certainly less compelling as a political argument, is the recent spate of refinery closures in the U.S. Over the past year, refineries have faced a classic margin squeeze. Prices for Brent crude have gone up, but demand for gasoline in the U.S. is at a 15-year low. That means refineries haven’t been able to pass on the higher prices to their customers.

    As a result, companies have chosen to shut down a handful of large refineries rather than continue to lose money on them. Since December, the U.S. has lost about 4 percent of its refining capacity, says Fadel Gheit, a senior oil and gas analyst for Oppenheimer. That month, two large refineries outside Philadelphia shut down: Sunoco’s plant in Marcus Hook, Pa., and a ConocoPhillips plant in nearby Trainer, Pa. Together they accounted for about 20 percent of all gasoline produced in the Northeast.

    via Businessweek.

    A careful reader will note the the literary slight of hand.  Brent crude is up, demand is down, refiners are stuck in the middle, some have lost money, and thus it makes simple business sense to shut down.  Therefore gas is expensive.  This is a logical fallacy of Ignoring a Common Cause.  This story makes the case that given facts A & B & C & D & E  that  E is the cause of high gas prices.  A refinery shuts down in the Northeast thus making gas expensive in the Northeast.  That’s the “E”.  This ignores high gas prices in the Midwest.  The common cause of high gas prices is “A” — high oil prices.

    This is further proved by a piece from the other side of the country:

    The oil company BP is zeroing in on a cause for last week’s explosion at its big Cherry Point refinery near Ferndale, Washington. …

    The Cherry Point refinery supplies about 20 percent of the transportation fuels for Washington and Oregon. Since the shutdown, gasoline prices in the region have spiked. …
    According to AAA, the average price of regular unleaded shot up 23-24 cents per gallon just in the past week in western Washington and Oregon. By comparison, the average price at the pump in Idaho went up by 14 cents in the past week.  Idaho and eastern Washington receive most of their gasoline from refineries in Montana and Utah, which are operating normally.

    via Northwest Public Radio.

    Yes, oil prices drove up the cost of gas throughout the Northwest, however in the area directly served by the Cherry Point refinery gas prices went up almost twice as much.  With no mention of other factors, it appears the refinery bottleneck is responsible for nearly 1/2 of the total price increase.

    Further, back to Bloomberg/Businessweek:

    “The U.S. refining industry is undergoing a huge, regional transformation,” says Ben Brockwell, a director at Oil Price Information Services. “If you look at refinery utilization rates in the Midwest and Great Lakes areas, they’re running at close to 95 percent capacity, and on the East Coast it’s more like 60 percent,” he says.

    via Businessweek.

    So while claiming that shutting down refining operations is that cause of gas price increases it actually turns out that there’s amply refining supply.  The refiners CAN refine more oil into gas; they’re choosing not to because the gas demand is so low that it doesn’t make any sense to make more gas.

    One hundred years of economics turned on its head; the Bloomberg argument is that low demand is the cost of high prices.  But this story is not about logic… it’s about advancing the meme that Obama cannot control oil prices.

    So let’s just ask, how closely does the price of gas track oil prices?

    Wow!  So I guess that closes the question about what’s really causing high gas prices… it’s high oil prices.

    So the next question would be to determine if a president can control oil prices.

    Well we know what Obama thinks:

    Democrat Barack Obama on Friday blamed high gasoline prices on Washington and a political establishment that he says hasn’t stood up to oil companies, his two rivals for the presidency included.

    “The candidates with the Washington experience – my opponents – are good people. They mean well, but they’ve been in Washington for a long time and even with all that experience they talk about, nothing has happened,” Obama said in remarks delivered at a gas station. “This country didn’t raise fuel efficiency standards for over 30 years.”

    The result, the Illinois senator said, is that consumers are suffering.

    “So what have we got to show for all that experience?” Obama asked. “Gas that’s approaching $4 a gallon.”

    via CBS News June 18, 2009.

    It appears that [candidate] Obama believed that Washington can effect gas prices.  Further, Obama at least used to believe that one such measure for controlling gas prices was to raise the fuel efficiency standard — often referred to as the CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards.  Interestingly, the CAFE standards to which Obama refers are under the direct control of the NHTSA and the EPA, both of which a president has direct control over.

    By Obama’s own argument he has some control over the price of gas.

  • Eric Holder 1995: We Must Brainwash People on Guns

    [In] 1995 … then-U.S. Attorney Eric Holder announc[ed] a public campaign to “really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.”

    Holder was addressing the Woman’s National Democratic Club. In his remarks, broadcast by CSPAN 2, he explained that he intended to use anti-smoking campaigns as his model to “change the hearts and minds of people in Washington, DC” about guns.

    “What we need to do is change the way in which people think about guns, especially young people, and make it something that’s not cool, that it’s not acceptable, it’s not hip to carry a gun anymore, in the way in which we changed our attitudes about cigarettes.”

    Despite strict gun control efforts, Washington, DC was and remains one of the nation’s most dangerous cities for gun violence, though crime has abated somewhat since the 1990s.

    via Brieitbart.

    Video:
    http://content.bitsontherun.com/players/vvy0FSoM-svqBtzyp.html

    He also exposes how modern progressives use schools to promote their brainwashing on America’s youth.

    Local political leaders and celebrities, Holder said, including Mayor Marion Barry and Jesse Jackson, had been asked to help. In addition, he reported, he had asked the local school board to make the anti-gun message a part of “every day, every school, and every level.”

    Right thinking people believe that parents are the primary educator.

    More and more it’s quickly becoming clear that Holder is an anchor around Obama’s neck… if the media would just wake up.

  • Korrupt Kane Kounty GOP

    Does the Kane County Board Chairmanship come with a license to print campaign cash?

    Karen McConnaughay must think so.

    So many county vendors became campaign contributors that the Daily Herald Editorial Board wrote, “We encourage McConnaughay to quit taking money from county vendors…”

    She’s now running for state senate on a track record of presiding over a legalized money laundering scheme™. Here are the details–

    In 2004, McConnaughay won election as Kane County Board Chairperson. From 2004-2009, the salary of Phil Bus- county development director- was spiked 71% from $93,481 to $158,923, graph.

    Then Phil Bus retired (2009) on the largest pension in Kane County history- $113,277/ year, proof. The salary spiking had padded his pension. But only two months later, Bus was re-hired by the county on lucrative consulting contracts. Look up FoxPlans, LLC by year, here.

    Sourced by a local newspaper, Bus’ wife and brother (Randall) contributed $9,300 in campaign cash to McConnaughay. We confirmed $4800 from the state board website.

    The Bus brother Randall’s engineering company, according to published reports, became the “go-to consultant on almost every unincorporated county subdivision plan”. We sourced tens of thousands of dollars in “consulting” payments flowing from Kane County.

    Karen McConnaughay’s political paradigm isn’t new to the GOP. Governors Thompson-Edgar-Ryan pioneered the patronage model. The Republican Party then split between political bosses who needed taxes to fund patronage, and our conservative, productive, tax-paying base.

    You can’t reform Illinois if you don’t reform the IL GOP. And, you can’t reform the Republican Party if you elect politicians like Karen McConnaughay.

    via McConnaughay Money Magic.

    Have we had enough of this yet?  It’s the political machine in Illinois that must be destroyed.

    Kudos to Adam Andrzejewski for bringing this to the light of day.

  • National Right to Carry Reciprocity Act of 2012

    Good news for Second Amendment types:

    Today, March 13, U.S. Senators Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) introduced S. 2188, the “National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2012.”  The bill is the Senate companion to H. R. 822, which was approved by the U. S. House last November by a vote of 272-154.

    S. 2188, like H.R. 822, would allow any person with a valid state-issued concealed firearm permit to carry a concealed handgun in any other state that issues concealed firearm permits, or that does not prohibit the carrying of concealed firearms for lawful purposes. A state’s laws governing where concealed handguns may be carried would apply within its borders.

    via NRA-ILA.

    Of course the anti-gun folks are ready to puke up their lunch.  They cannot face the facts regarding gun ownership; more guns, less crime.

    Consider:

    Today 49 states either issue carry permits or otherwise authorize law-abiding people to carry firearms outside the home for self-defense. 41 states have fair “shall issue” permit systems that allow any law-abiding person to get a permit.  …

    These bills would have no effect on permitless carry laws, currently on the books in Arizona, Alaska, Wyoming and Vermont, that allow concealed carry without a permit. In addition, Vermont residents would be able to take advantage of S. 2188 and H.R. 822 by obtaining a permit from one of the many states that offer non-resident permits.

    To think that four states allow citizens to walk around carrying handguns without any permit whatsoever.  Oh the horror!!

  • State Rep. Derrick Smith Charged, Arrested

    Ha ha ha ha!

    State Rep. Derrick Smith, a Democrat from Chicago, was arrested today for allegedly pocketing a $7,000 cash bribe to write an official letter of support for a day care center he believed was seeking a state grant.

    The arrest came after an undercover operation launched by the FBI in December with the help of an undisclosed individual who works on Smith’s political campaigns, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

    The informant told investigators that Smith had talked about needing help with fundraising since he was appointed to the House seat last year. Smith allegedly said he wanted donations in the range of $5,000 to $7,000 and was willing to accommodate reasonable requests from donors, prosecutors said.

    via Chicago Tribune.

    Oh, this guy is so going down.  Read the story; the U.S. attorney has this guy dead-to-rights.

    But the real question is who’s going to go down with him.  Mr. Smith is (was?) supported by a literal who’s who of the Chicago Democratic Party.  Jesse White, the Teachers’ Union, AFL-CIO, Ald. Fioretti, etc.

    What’s even more interesting is that Smith’s opponent, Tom Swiss, is a former GOP party official of some sort in Cook County.  So now Democrats are forced to decide whether to vote for a guy who takes bribes or a former Republican.

    Down right hilarious.

  • Sandra Fluke is a Plant

    Ok ok, I realize someone’s going to criticize use of the term “plant.”  … Aaah, who cares:

    “For six days, we have been telling you that the 30-year-old Georgetown law student has become a major player in the presidential election,” O’Reilly said during his show last Friday. “Last night, we reported that she is now being handled pro bono, for free, by [former Obama aide Anita Dunn’s] PR firm SKDKnickerbocker, which is good, because Sandra doesn’t have enough money to buy birth control pills, as we know.  But there is more to Sandra’s story than just contraception. Right now, she’s on spring break in California with her boyfriend, who is the son of Democratic stalwart William Mutterperl. He has made at least 56 donations to Democratic candidates or organizations. Nothing wrong with that — I’m just pointing it out.”

    via Business Insider.

    The Left will continue to do anything to makes sure this story does not go away.  But it may start getting tougher for them.

    Word is leaking out that she’s not the innocent victim that she claims the media has (attempted to) made her out to be.  She’s a well educated, professionally handled, young woman with a well defined agenda.

    Now I actually feel for her.  I hope she knows that she being used as a pawn by politicians who do not have her best interest in mind.  She’s playing a very (VERY) dangerous game.  If this thing goes south she may end up working at Revlon with Monica Lewinsky.

  • Energy Sec. Wanted High Gas Prices

    “Somehow, we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”

    — Steven Chu, President Obama’s Secretary or Energy in 2008

    via POLITICO.

    Gas prices are exactly where Obama wants them.

    Billions invested in bogus and failing technologies.  It’s easy to beat up on oil companies, however they average high tax rates and lower margins than many other businesses.

    He ran as the anti-oil president and he is the anti-oil president.  Now it’s time to reap what you sow.  Obama owns the gas price issue.