Yea, I have friends and family in Brasil but they’ll never see this. Crowder does a great parody but nails it on the facts.
Obama: ostentatious and arrogant. And not afraid to show it
April 28, 2011
Since Mr. Obama was elected to the Oval Office he has been oft joked about and criticized for many of his “public displays.” We know the office of Commander in Chief requires quite a bit of time and it’s assured he does work.
However there are those who regard many of his public displays as unseemly, careless, arrogant and poorly timed or when critics feel he should be someplace else, or doing something else.
Yes he plays golf a lot. Even the day after the earthquake/tsunami hit Japan. And he cancelled a trip to the funeral of Poland’s president to knock the putter around.
He touts “green energy”, electric cars and more fuel efficient cars while traveling around with an entourage of 17 gas-guzzler SUVs. When someone complained about the price of gas at one of his appearances, he made the suggestion he buy a more fuel efficient one. He’s been photographed with his feet on the beautiful desk in the Oval Office while complaining about the poor phone service.
He’s the butt of late-night comics, but then all president’s have been. Jay Leno had this to say recently:
“Donald Trump says he’s President Obama’s worst nightmare,” Jay Leno said last night. “No. Having to make a decision is President Obama’s worst nightmare.”
Last summer after the BP spill Obama urged people to vacation on the Gulf coast while his wife and her friends jaunted off to Spain and spent millions of dollars.
He conveniently didn’t mention Good Friday or Easter among the various other religions he recognized last week.
Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama have also ignored protocol. Obama was photographed many times bowing to foreign dignitaries. Michelle gave Queen Elizabeth of England a “hug” which is a definite no-no. And who can forget this photo of Michelle “looking daggers” at French First Lady Carla Sarkozy:
Several other “displays” the taxpayers have foot the bill for, all this week:
- The Obamas flew on Air Force One to Chicago for 3 hours to tape an “Oprah” show.
- Then they flew to New York City to attend a fundraiser.
- Obama taped interviews on the budget in Ohio, Georgia, Virginia and Michigan and then met with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates. All were closed.
FYI Air Force One costs the taxpayers $181,000 an hour.
This writer feels when Election 2012 rolls around the voters will remember.
ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY
Oh, I have the feeling the voters certainly will remember. I know I will. This administration looks more like the series Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous than elected officials. And Obama and Michelle’s “let the taypayers eat cake while we party like it’s 1994″ is infuriating. This hypocrisy and hubris is not something I’ve seen from an elected official ever.
I remember how low-key both Bush administrations were. George Sr., Barbara, George Jr. and Laura came off as more “simple, ordinary” folk and I don’t recall any lavish vacations. GWB preferred to spend time on his Texas ranch clearing brush than jet-setting around the world. It was GWB who greeted returning troops from Afghanistan in Dallas post-presidency when Obama was nowhere to be found.
But then these kinds of people never think these things will come back to bite them in the rear. I have a feeling they will be in for a big surprise.
Crossposted at Unified Patriots News
Trump goes after Obama on gas prices
April 28, 2011
Reality show producer and real estate mogul Donald Trump criticized Mr. Obama on his failure to rein in the cost of gasoline for consumers. Gas in most parts of the country is at least $4 per gallon and in some places approaching $5 per gallon.
Last week Mr. Obama announced a DOJ investigation into possible “criminalities” involving the high gasoline prices, however “The Donald” has said Obama is “100% wrong” that he cannot do anything about the price. Here is what he had to say:
Last Tuesday Obama sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) proclaiming there is “no silver bullet” to address the rising cost of gasoline.
Trump says otherwise:
“Yesterday, our president said that he has very little impact over the price of gasoline,” Trump told reporters. “I think he’s 100 percent wrong because OPEC is setting the price of fuel.”
Trump asserts because the U.S. provides a multitude of protection for Saudi Arabia they have no right to raise the price of oil and that “no one is talking to them about this.”
Saudi Arabia announced several days ago they would be cutting back on production to fuel demand and raise prices. Trump also says Obama could use military deployments as “leverage.”
Obama said he is already in talks with oil producing countries and pointed out if prices go too high it would be to the detriment of the global economy.
ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY
Several things are majorly bothering me here. Trump would not like to see some sort of military intervention ruled out in the middle east to “leverage” the Middle-Eastern oil-producing countries to bring down prices.
With the U.S. involved in Libya and tensions mounting in other OPEC countries with protests and government crackdowns, somehow I don’t really think this is a good idea.
Also Mr. Trump. You failed to mention a couple of facts. The United States has plenty of her own oil, however Mr. Obama has a de facto drilling moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico and many rigs have left the Gulf in frustration. The EPA and BOEMRE under Obama’s control have made the acquirement of drilling and air permits so difficult many oil companies are throwing up their hands in frustration and giving up even though they may have already invested millions of dollars in the project. Witness Shell, the only permitee in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea announcing they will be leaving the project before drilling is begun.
It’s a known fact in 2008 when gasoline prices were at $4 per gallon, when President Bush eased off-shore drilling restrictions the price of gasoline immediately went down.
Love or hate the system, that is how the market reacts. Mr. Trump, you need to get off the rhetoric of using “blackmail” against OPEC countries to ease the price of oil and gas. Let’s start using our own.
Related articles: Shell pulls the plug on Alaska drilling
Lack of drilling in Gulf even one year after BP spill
Crossposted at Unified Patriots News
Greenwire: U.S. losing $4.7M a day from permitting lag, group says
April 27, 2011
The following information was received via email from House Natural Resources Committee Chair Doc Hastings. The article sited and written by Phil Taylor at Greenwire requires a subscription.
Research by a Dallas-based research group found that declining oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico and a lull in new drilling permits is costing the United States $4.7 million a day in mineral revenues.
The briefing released today by the National Center for Policy Analysis blames the losses on declining production at existing wells and bureaucratic delays on new exploration but warns that the losses will increase the longer the United States waits to issue new offshore leases.
The group cites estimates by the federal Energy Information Administration that Gulf oil production will decline by 240,000 barrels a day this year. With oil selling at $100 a barrel and producers typically paying an 18.75 percent royalty, the United States is losing $4.7 million a day, which would amount to $1.7 billion over the year, the group found.
“While President Obama says he supports deficit reduction, his administration’s policies are only contributing to the country’s deficit problem,” report author and NCPA adjunct scholar Rob Bluey said. “Every day the Obama administration delays new oil drilling, the federal government loses more oil company revenue that could be used to reduce state, federal and local deficits.”
Bluey is also director of the Center for Media and Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation.
The report also warns that the lack of new leases means the government will collect less in rent payments, which generate more than $200 million a year.
The Interior Department since February has issued at least 10 new deepwater permits for exploration activity that was banned under a now-lifted moratorium imposed in the aftermath of last April’s BP PLC Deepwater Horizon disaster. The moratorium allowed Interior to establish critical safety regulations to protect workers and the environment from another blowout, officials have said.
Interior last week said it plans to hold its first lease sale after the BP spill in the western Gulf by the end of the year (E&ENews PM, April 19).
The NCPA briefing also takes a swipe at an Obama administration proposal to raise inspection fees and charge nonproducing lease holders to raise money for more inspectors and agency resources.
The group suggests additional revenue from expanded production would be ample to cover the costs. “The income from new lease sales, rents and royalties would be more than enough to pay for new offshore oil rig inspections,” the group notes. “President Obama’s 2012 budget proposal estimates the fees would generate about $65 million — significantly less than the amount the federal government could collect by simply boosting Gulf of Mexico production to last year’s levels.”
Crossposted at Unified Patriots
Teleprompter inventor Schlafly dies
April 27, 2011
One of the key people in the invention of the teleprompter has died. Hubert “Hub” Schlafly passed away in Connecticut at the age of 91. His device has “rescued” actors and politicians over the years.
Schlafly was the television director of 20th Century Fox and was approached to invent a device when actor Fred Barton, Jr. wanted a way to remember his lines. It first debuted in 1950 on the soap opera “The First Hundred Years.” The device is a motorized scroll with a script at reading speed.
The company Schlafly helped begin was originally called “TelePrompTer Corp. ” The second “t” was capitalized to make the word more memorable however now it is just called “teleprompter.”
Schlafly never used the device himself until rehearsing for a speech for being inducted into the Cable Television Hall of fame. He was 88 at the time.
Cablevision chairman Charles Dolan called Schlafly “the cable industry’s most innovative engineer” and “one of its ablest executives.
The first politician to use the teleprompter was Herbert Hoover in 1952 at the Republican National Convention and every president since then has used the device.
The device:
“[It] revolutionized television and improved the quality of on-air performers,” said Jim Dufek, a professor of mass media at Southeast Missouri State University. “It also made the politicians look smarter because they were looking right into the camera.”
Schlafly was the holder of 16 patents.
ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY
We have all seen times when the teleprompter has gone awry with technical glitches and a serious speech can turn into “comedy.” None as much as during the time Mr. Obama has been in office and he and the teleprompter have been the butt of many a joke. Witness the picture above, as Mr. Obama even needed the device when speaking to a group of school children.
Crossposted at Conservative Outlooks
