Drill Baby Drill!!

What ever happened to “Drill Baby Drill”?

John Hofmeister, founder and CEO of the non-profit group Citizens for AFFordable Energy and former CEO of Shell Oil, keeps sounding the alarm but no one seems to be listening. As recently as February 24 he appeared on Parker Spitzer saying what he has said before. In addition he said we have plenty of oil within the United States; we just don’t want to deal with the messy business of extraction.

John Hofmeister on FBN “Varney & Company” 2/28/2011
The price of gasoline continues to rise. So what is the Obama administration doing about it? What should it do? Listen to John Hofmeister’s comments on this and likelihood of $4 a gallon gasoline this year.

The AP reported today “Oil prices climbed Tuesday as Iran clamped down on anti-government protesters and unrest in the Middle East threatened to keep energy prices high for months to come.”

What will it take to change our objections to utilizing our own resources? Perhaps the answer is gasoline at $5.00 per gallon.

Free Gaza Movement – Looking the Other Way

Posted with permission from the author.

Bay Area News Group-East Bay
Feb. 28 letters to the editor

Looking the other way

IN LIGHT of the revolutions across the Arab world, why does the Free Gaza Movement continue to support the Hamas regime in Gaza? While Hamas confiscates homes to hide weapons tunnels, closes secular schools, and kills homosexuals and “Zionist collaborators,” FGM “peace activists” look the other way.

On Facebook, young Gazans express more hatred of Hamas than of the Israelis, knowing that criticism of Hamas can get oneself killed.

Hamas in Gaza is a division of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Closely allied with the Nazis during World War II, today they advocate an Islamic caliphate and genocidal jihad against the Jews.

Many fear they will hijack Egypt’s revolution to create a Taliban-style theocracy more oppressive than Mubarak’s regime.

The oppression people fear in Egypt exists today in Gaza. The Hamas charter does not call for a free Palestine; just annihilating the Zionists.

The “aid” flotillas sponsored by FGM do not bring humanitarian aid; even Hamas publicly stated that the supplies are useless. The flotillas are to enable Hamas to import more lethal weapons from Iran to attack Israel.

This is what the Free Gaza Movement represents — the same hatred and repression against which the people of Egypt revolted.

Larry Feinstein
San Carlos, CA

Oscar win highlights plight of Africans in Israel

ARON HELLER

From Associated Press

February 28, 2011 4:25 PM EST

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Students at the Bialik-Rogozin school in a rundown Tel Aviv neighborhood have survived genocide, war and famine. But they were all smiles on Monday after learning that a documentary about their plight had won an Academy Award.

“Strangers No More” puts a human face on Israel’s absorption of African migrants — an issue that has divided the country as the government plans to deport hundreds of children, including students at the school.

When news of the Oscar for best short documentary arrived early Monday, the school jumped into action, festooning the building with balloons and banners and hosting a visit by the mayor.

Both students and faculty said they hoped the sudden attention would persuade the government to cancel its deportation plan.

“Hopefully, thanks to the Oscar, people will see that these are children with dreams like all other children,” said vice principal Mirit Shapiro.

Israel has been grappling with how to handle an influx of migrants since they began arriving in 2005.

Tens of thousands of Africans, most from Sudan and Eritrea, have since infiltrated across Israel’s long desert border with Egypt.

Since then, Israel has become a magnet for asylum seekers and migrants desperate for jobs in the industrialized world. Many found their way to the impoverished neighborhoods of south Tel Aviv, home to Bialik-Rogozin. The area has so many migrants that Israelis have named it “little Africa.”

The government has scrambled to stop the flood of migrants by erecting a fence along the 130-mile (220-kilometer) Egyptian border and a massive detention center in the remote southern desert.

The Interior Ministry, which oversees immigration, now says it is poised to begin implementing a Cabinet decision to deport thousands of those deemed to be in the country illegally, including hundreds of children.

Some deportations of adults have already taken place, and tens of thousands of Asian workers who entered the country legally but have overstayed their visas are also marked for expulsion.

The plight of the children has especially resonated among Israelis, since the kids speak Hebrew, consider themselves Israeli and many have known no other life.

For migrant advocates, the Oscar could not have come at a more opportune moment.

“If they are good enough to represent Israel at the Oscars, they are good enough to remain part of the country,” said Yonathan Shaham of the “Israeli Children” foundation.

The movie follows the story of three children at the school: Mohammed Adam, a refugee who escaped the genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region; Johannes Mulugeta, whose first day at school is captured in the film; and Esther Aikpehae, a girl who fled South Africa with her father after her mother was killed in unclear circumstances.

Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon’s 40-minute documentary details their struggle to acclimate to life in Israel, slowly unveils their stories of hardship and interviews the dedicated teachers guiding them.

The school had a United Nations feel to it on Monday, with children dashing through the hallways and a square interior courtyard featuring the 48 flags of all the students’ countries of origin.

Aikpehae, a precocious 12-year-old girl with piercing eyes and long black hair, speaks fluent Hebrew and excels in the sixth grade. But because she has been in the country less than five years, she is among those eligible for deportation. She said her only hope was to stay in her beloved school.

“It’s not like every other school,” she said in English. “There is Muslims, there is Jews and there are Christians and we all live in peace.”

The movie already appears to be making an impact, with some of Israel’s most powerful figures rallying in support of the school.

Education Minister Gideon Saar sent his congratulations, saying the school represented “education at its finest.”

And President Shimon Peres called the school to send his best wishes.

“You have brought us a double dose of happiness,” Peres said, noting the achievements of the school and the favorable depiction of Israel.

Sabine Haddad, a spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, refused to discuss the movie.

Israel grants automatic citizenship to Jews but doesn’t have a firm policy for the migrants. The government took a step toward resolving their status by issuing a set of guidelines in August that would allow certain families to remain.

The criteria grant permanent residency visas to children of migrants if they have parents who entered the country legally, attended school, spoke Hebrew and resided in Israel for at least five years. Haddad could not provide figures on how many would qualify.

Adam, the 19-year-old Darfurian refugee featured in the film, says his dream it to study law in Israel. In Sudan, he watched his father and grandmother shot to death before his eyes. After just three years in Israel, he has graduated from high school, mastered the Hebrew language and is now studying at a post-high school seminar. His status in Israel remains uncertain, but he is optimistic.

“It’s thanks to the school,” he said. “Now I want to stay and get a university degree.”

Copied from this internet AP story: http://my.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=20110228/1ff777ce-fea6-4e56-8e21-3dcec70790fc

Boehner rips bid to regulate Internet

By Mark A. Kellner-The Washington Times12:04 a.m., Monday, February 28, 2011

NASHVILLE, Tenn. | House Speaker John A. Boehner lashed out against efforts to regulate Internet traffic before an audience of evangelical Christian media leaders and pointedly responded to President Obama by comparing the challenge of the burgeoning national debt to the Sputnik-era space race.

In a speech to religious broadcasters that received a sustained ovation at his conclusion, he said free expression is under attack by a power structure in Washington populated with regulators who have never set foot inside a radio station or a television studio.

“We see this threat in how the FCC is creeping further into the free market by trying to regulate the Internet,” Mr. Boehner said.

“The last thing we need, in my view, is the FCC serving as Internet traffic controller, and potentially running roughshod over local broadcasters who have been serving their communities with free content for decades,” he said to loud applause from members of the National Religious Broadcasters, a trade group holding its annual convention here.

via Boehner rips bid to regulate Internet – Washington Times.

Insanity in California Budgeting

This is an astonishing abridged version of a report from the Los Angeles Times in italics. I have bolded some extraordinary facts.

After a 10-year borrowing binge, the upcoming budget is expected to spend more on debt than public universities or state parks. Next year’s repayments — $7.65 billion — could make up a quarter of the deficit.

Voters have approved borrowing in the last 10 years for such causes as stem-cell research ($3 billion), high-speed rail ($10 billion), and parks, water and the environment ($14 billion). They even took on $15 billion in debt to paper over a deficit that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said would never reemerge — something economists have scolded the state for doing. California pays a premium for its loans. Taxpayers must fork over roughly $2 for every $1 borrowed — about 20% more than top-rated states, said Matt Fabian, an analyst at Municipal Market Advisors, a bond research firm.

Because of its rock-bottom credit rating, California pays a premium for its loans. Taxpayers must fork over roughly $2 for every $1 borrowed — about 20% more than top-rated states, said Matt Fabian, an analyst at Municipal Market Advisors, a bond research firm.

Amazingly Legislators have already placed an $11-billion water bond on the 2012 ballot. Nearly $1 billion in earmarks for such items as bike paths, museums, visitor centers and tree planting in key legislators’ districts were inserted to grease its passage.

Back in 2000 — in the heady days of surpluses — lawmakers placed a then-record $2.1-billion parks bond on the ballot rather than spend from the general fund to acquire undeveloped land and spruce up existing parks.Among the projects the borrowing funded were a bowling alley in Stockton, a bee colony and otter pond in San Mateo, and a dinosaur plaza in Santa Ana, complete with a giant replica Tyrannosaurus rex. About $1.2 million went to buff up a bear exhibit at the Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary near Sacramento. Caves were retrofitted with heated concrete because the cold “gets a little tough on the bones of the animals as they age,” said Robert Goss, the city’s parks and recreation director.

The shock is that we keep re-electing the same people to our legislature.

Upholding the Defense of Marriage Law

Oath of office of the President of the United States, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Doesn’t this oath require the president to uphold all the laws and regulations that have been passed by the Congress and signed by the president that held office? If that isn’t the expectation of all of our presidents then why do we have the three parts of government? Those three are legislative, executive, and judiciary. It has been accepted practice that the judiciary branch of government, in the form of the Supreme Court, is the final authority on the legality of any law.

Does the Department of Justice Have an Obligation to Defend the Defense of Marriage Law? If you accept the above method of our system of governance then the answer must be YES!

Without a process we have no system of justice.

Elections Have Consequences

Wisconsin’s governor, Scott Walker, ran for office on a pledge to do exactly what he is doing. Wisconsin may be known as a strong liberal state but the voters had a choice. The public employees may not like the results but elections have consequences.

Wisconsin Democratic Senate members ran away en masse to Illinois so that they could stop a vote on a bill they oppose. This is not democracy. Nineteen members of that senate are Republicans and fourteen are Democrats. The results of the vote against the unions are obvious.

This is the way our system of government is supposed to work. The losers in each election must accept the fact that the majority of voters did not agree with their viewpoint. The Democrats lost.

America’s Political Values Collide with its Economic Interests

Let’s be clear about one thing. America has security and economic interests throughout the world. I wrote about this issue on February 8, 2011. Since then I have read Niall Furguson’s WANTED A GRAND STRATEGY FOR AMERICA in Newsweek and Brendan Greeley’s The Fallacy of Facebook Diplomacy in Businessweek. The two articles converge on the point that I made on February 8. The bottom line is we want economic certainty, physical security, and democracy all at the same time.

Our desires are appropriate but the people who would carry them out do not see the world through the eyes of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin. Facebook calls for neat round pegs in round holes while the square pegs fit into their appropriate holes sort of like the neat way we try to manage our affairs in the West. Neither the potentates of the Middle East nor the populations of those nations see the world as Westerners.

What makes this situation all the more difficult is that Western leaders do not understand the culture of those nations. Thus we have the American government tied in knots. Unfortunately, Barack Obama has not shown himself to be a strong leader and that has resulted in no coordinated plan to address the issues.

If I was betting, I would expect that whoever ends up leading the nations of the Middle East in the future, it will not be the same as it has been over the past 40 years. America’s lack of leadership will result in a more hostile environment for American interests. If we could only figure out what our primary interests are!