Hillary's crossing swords with the coffee maker in the convenience store reminds me of Joel Robinson matching comic riffs with his robot buddies Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot on the TV cult classic Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). The comedy series ran from 1988 to 1999 and featured the merciless put-downs and jokes of Joel and his robot buddies directed at the Z-grade Science Fiction movies they were forced to watch by mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester as they traveled in space aboard the S.O.L. (Satellite of Love)
Here are a couple of segments from the Best of MST3K:
Hillary takes on the Coffee Machine
Cute segment.
The former first lady tries to coax a cup of "Joe" out of a coffee maker during a break between campaign stops.
The former first lady tries to coax a cup of "Joe" out of a coffee maker during a break between campaign stops.
Jeremiah Wright Sinks Obama Campaign at National Press Club
No deep-pockets Hillary supporter or died-in-the-wool conservative blogger, pundit, editor or journalist working 7 days a week, 24 hours a day could do the kind of damage to Barack Obama's campaign that Jeremiah Wright unleashed during a one hour appearance before the National Press Club yesterday morning. Words fail to describe the stunning spectacle of calumny, and shtick that was put on full display before the national press corps between the hours of 9 and 10 AM Eastern Time Monday by the Junior Senator's Pastor and mentor of 20 years, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
While Barack Obama has been waging a relentless campaign to win the trust of blue collar and middle American voters in his bid to win the Indiana and North Carolina Primaries, Reverend Wright was able to shove the Presidential hopeful off stage and take the center spotlight at a critical juncture in Obama's effort to finish the 2008 race as his party's nominee. Following his disappointing 10 percentage point loss to former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator Obama launched a new phase in his campaign in neighboring Indiana, forsaking the large rallies that exemplified his earlier appearances in favor of a blizzard of small townhall meetings and even capping a long day of glad handing in Kokomo with a televised 3 on 3 game of basketball. The last thing the Obama campaign PT boat expected today was to be sunk by the "friendly fire" blazing from the guns of the Battleship Jeremiah Wright. In scatter-shot fashion Reverend Wright launched self-congratulatory broadsides at various targets including Vice-President Dick Cheney, the Iraq War, Jews, America, critics of his sermons, the Marine Corps, and his former congregant turned Presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama.
During a much happier time in run for the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination Senator Obama tried to dismiss the incendiary rantings of his cleric by telling reporters at the time that Reverend Wright, "is like an old uncle who says things I don't always agree with," and told a Jewish group that "everyone has someone like that in their family." Unfortunately for the Senator from Chicago's South Side, polite company is sitting in the parlor and the crazy old uncle has just taken off his clothes and is not going back into the attic.
Before a supportive group of listeners who have crowded in front of the dias Obama's Pastor is asked during a Q and A session to explain comments he made after 9/11 that "America's chickens are coming home to roost". Reverend Wright justifies his bombastic statements by repeatedly asking the questioner, "Have you heard the whole sermon?" The Reverend says he was quoting the ambassador from Iraq at the time who would have been a representative from Saddam Hussein's murderous regime. (What a source of moral authority!) Reverend Wright accuses the United States of carrying out acts of terrorism. The crowd gathered in the front of the auditorium is in full agreement with his anti-American quips.
During the segment while addressing questions about his association with Louis Farrakhan Reverend Wright said; "He is one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century; that's what I think about him. . . . Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy. He did not put me in chains, he did not put me in slavery, and he didn't make me this color."
Regarding Senator Obama Reverend Wright indicated that as a politician Obama will say whatever it takes to get elected and added regarding the Senator's distancing from his Pastor, "we both know that if Senator Obama did not say what he said (in creating space between himself and Reverend Wright) he would never get elected." Later when asked if he thought America was damned Reverend Wright said, "as I told Obama last year, if you get elected, November the 5th I'm coming after you. Because you'd be representing a government whose policies grind under people."
In this segment Reverend Wright says the media was foolish to criticize him and his sermons and intones that these are not an attacks on him but an attacks on the black church and opines that if God wants Senator Obama to be President "no white racist....can get in the way". A not-so-subtle inference that a white person who does not support or vote for Obama is a racist.
After the smug performance his Pastor turned in before the nation's media Obama must be asking himself "with friends like this, who needs Hannity?"
While Barack Obama has been waging a relentless campaign to win the trust of blue collar and middle American voters in his bid to win the Indiana and North Carolina Primaries, Reverend Wright was able to shove the Presidential hopeful off stage and take the center spotlight at a critical juncture in Obama's effort to finish the 2008 race as his party's nominee. Following his disappointing 10 percentage point loss to former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Senator Obama launched a new phase in his campaign in neighboring Indiana, forsaking the large rallies that exemplified his earlier appearances in favor of a blizzard of small townhall meetings and even capping a long day of glad handing in Kokomo with a televised 3 on 3 game of basketball. The last thing the Obama campaign PT boat expected today was to be sunk by the "friendly fire" blazing from the guns of the Battleship Jeremiah Wright. In scatter-shot fashion Reverend Wright launched self-congratulatory broadsides at various targets including Vice-President Dick Cheney, the Iraq War, Jews, America, critics of his sermons, the Marine Corps, and his former congregant turned Presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama.
During a much happier time in run for the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination Senator Obama tried to dismiss the incendiary rantings of his cleric by telling reporters at the time that Reverend Wright, "is like an old uncle who says things I don't always agree with," and told a Jewish group that "everyone has someone like that in their family." Unfortunately for the Senator from Chicago's South Side, polite company is sitting in the parlor and the crazy old uncle has just taken off his clothes and is not going back into the attic.
Before a supportive group of listeners who have crowded in front of the dias Obama's Pastor is asked during a Q and A session to explain comments he made after 9/11 that "America's chickens are coming home to roost". Reverend Wright justifies his bombastic statements by repeatedly asking the questioner, "Have you heard the whole sermon?" The Reverend says he was quoting the ambassador from Iraq at the time who would have been a representative from Saddam Hussein's murderous regime. (What a source of moral authority!) Reverend Wright accuses the United States of carrying out acts of terrorism. The crowd gathered in the front of the auditorium is in full agreement with his anti-American quips.
During the segment while addressing questions about his association with Louis Farrakhan Reverend Wright said; "He is one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century; that's what I think about him. . . . Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy. He did not put me in chains, he did not put me in slavery, and he didn't make me this color."
Regarding Senator Obama Reverend Wright indicated that as a politician Obama will say whatever it takes to get elected and added regarding the Senator's distancing from his Pastor, "we both know that if Senator Obama did not say what he said (in creating space between himself and Reverend Wright) he would never get elected." Later when asked if he thought America was damned Reverend Wright said, "as I told Obama last year, if you get elected, November the 5th I'm coming after you. Because you'd be representing a government whose policies grind under people."
In this segment Reverend Wright says the media was foolish to criticize him and his sermons and intones that these are not an attacks on him but an attacks on the black church and opines that if God wants Senator Obama to be President "no white racist....can get in the way". A not-so-subtle inference that a white person who does not support or vote for Obama is a racist.
After the smug performance his Pastor turned in before the nation's media Obama must be asking himself "with friends like this, who needs Hannity?"
No Difference Between Wright And Wrong
Is anyone else out there as tired of hearing from and about Rev. Jeremiah Wrong (Wright) as I am? Come on! He isn't news. He's just a cranky old man with a chip on his shoulder.Everything with him is about race. According to him, pointing out his hate-filled ramblings is racist. Campaigning against Obama is racist. Whites are attacking the black church.
Rev. Wrong, you are just like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Your job and your livelihood depend on your ability to create and enemy which you will stand up against "for the people".
You said Barack Obama knew what it was like to grow up black and poor in a country controlled by rich white people. You implied that black people cannot better themselves because of the oppression by rich white people.
Let me ask you a few questions:
- If rich white people control this country, how did Obama get where he is? How about you, Rev. Wrong? Are you still poor and under the thumb of rich white people?
- Who paid for your $1.6 million house that is in a white neighborhood? Was it rich white people? Or maybe it was good, hardworking, middle to lower income black people. How many of them have a $1.6 million house, Rev. Wrong?
- How did African slaves come to be in the possession of rich white people? Would you please tell your congregation the truth about that?
- Who are the real slaves and slaveowners today, huh? The slaves are the same good, hardworking black people who bought you a $1.6 million house. The slaveowners are people like you, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and all of the liberals regardless of their color. You have lied to them and brainwashed them into believing that they cannot survive without your help and the government's help. You and all of the liberals have continually lied to them to maintain power over them. Telling someone they "can't" and handing them a check helps them for one month. Teaching them how to be self-sufficient, supporting and encouraging them helps them for a lifetime.
- You have given black Americans a slave mentality like the Israelites. The Israelites were freed after 400 years of slavery. Slavery was all they knew. At the first sign of trouble they complained that they were better off in slavery. You and your cohorts have given black Americans that same slavery mentality. You have made them believe they cannot better themselves, they are dependent upon the government for everything they have, and if they don't continue to raise up leaders like you they will be completely unprotected against the evil white majority. LIES, LIES, LIES!!!!!!
To all black Americans, please, please, please stop listening to these lies. You are not incapable. You are not ignorant. You are not failures. Yes, your path to freedom and self-sufficiency may be longer and harder than for others. My path to success was longer and harder than Ted Kennedy's, John Kerry's, and Barack Obama's.
The key to success is YOU. You will decide your future. You are in control. Don't look at your circumstances as insurmountable obstacles. Look at them as challenges. Michael Jordan didn't wake up one day and join the Chicago Bulls. He worked his butt off and over time became the greatest basketball player in history.
No matter what anyone tells you, it is up to you.
Weathermen Bomb Attack Victim Raises Obama's Association with Terrorists
Retired NYPD Detective Paul Ragonese talks with Sean Hannity about his survival of the June 9th 1970 bombing of New York City Police headquarters by associates of William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn who enjoy a friendly relationship with Senator Barack Obama. Weather Underground members Mr. Ayers and Ms. Dohrn now teach at Northwestern University and describe themselves as unrepentant terrorists.
Mr. Ragonese says "if that's the standard for NYC cops, that we can't associate with known criminals, that should be the minimal standard I believe for the President of the United States."
H.T. Gateway Pundit.
Mr. Ragonese says "if that's the standard for NYC cops, that we can't associate with known criminals, that should be the minimal standard I believe for the President of the United States."
H.T. Gateway Pundit.
2005 Linne Calodo "Leona's" (62% Zinfandel, 30% Syrah, 8% Mourvedre (Paso Robles, Cal.)
This hard-to-get wine from a very sought-after and relatively new producer was very intense, but would have been even better had its alcohol level been a bit lower.
Eye: Dark black ruby with violet highlights.Nose: Intense, complex nose of spicy blackberries, rock dust, sweet cream, pungent black peppercorns, minerals, and ink.
Mouth: Huge body. Intense, peppery flavors, with bitterish blackberries fruit. This wine needs a substantial, meaty pasta sauce that the high alcohol can cut through, or else it's just too darn peppery.
Score: 90 (on the basis of sheer character, but certainly not elegance or subtlety).
Cellar or drink? In my experience, wines whose alcohol is so prominent in youth do not age well. The alcohol just seems to burn away the fruit. Drink now with a bit of airing.
Price/Store: Was $49.95 at Houston Wine Merchant.
2006 Mommessin MACON-VILLAGES "Old Vines - Chardonnay" (Burgundy, France)
This was great buy in a clean, unoaked, characterful Chardonnay.
Eye: Light brassy gold color.
Nose: Pretty, pure fruit nose: Pear, apple, peach pit, with earthy, stony notes subtly in the background.
Mouth: Lots of up-front, clean, concentrated fruit attacks the palate. Good weight and softness, with medium-full body, and a clean, pure finish.
Score: 88.
Cellar or drink? Drink now.
Price/store: $8 and change at most Spec's.
Eye: Light brassy gold color.
Nose: Pretty, pure fruit nose: Pear, apple, peach pit, with earthy, stony notes subtly in the background.Mouth: Lots of up-front, clean, concentrated fruit attacks the palate. Good weight and softness, with medium-full body, and a clean, pure finish.
Score: 88.
Cellar or drink? Drink now.
Price/store: $8 and change at most Spec's.
2000 Trimbach GEWURZTRAMINER "Vendages Tardives" (Alsace, France)
This was a terrifically flavorful, but not overly sweet, after dinner wine.
Eye: Very light straw color.
Nose: Drop-dead gorgeous nose of apricots, lychee nuts, yeasty bread, and a subtle background note of stony minerals.Mouth: Ripe, rich flavors of buttery apricots and cherries, with earthy straw notes. Auslese-level sweetness. Long, clean finish, with a slow fade of apricot, straw and bread. Not at all tiring to drink, yet with fairly low acidity.
Score: 91.
Cellar or drink? Drink over the next year, as this does not have the intense acidity to ensure much more aging.
Price/store: Got this for about $70 for a full, not half, bottle at Spec's on Smith.
Full context of Jeremiah Wright's "God Damn America" Sermon
Reverend Jeremiah Wright complained to an overly-simpathetic Bill Moyer's on Friday of the unfairness of replaying of video clips "cherry picked" by certain people for "very devious reasons". Here is the full context sans "cherrypicking" of one of the Reverend Wright's sermons in his own words.
The Reverend Wright's distortions of American history are too numerous to cite here.
The Reverend Wright's distortions of American history are too numerous to cite here.
Pasta with fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and Italian sausage
I made up this dish last night, and it's pretty darn good.
Ingredients/prep
1 lb. package good quality penne or other pasta
12-ounce tub fresh mozzarella (drain cheese and cut into ¾" chunks)
3 mild Italian sausages (preferably homemade), skin removed , coarsely chopped
Half a bunch of green onions (scallions), chopped
12 basil leaves (chiffonaded, i.e., cut into thin ribbons)
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed but whole
4 med. tomatoes (seeds, gooey stuff, and ribs removed), cut into ½" pieces
¼ cup dry white wine
Fresh ground black pepper
Red pepper flakes
Sea salt
Directions
1. Get large pot of salted water boiling.
2. Meanwhile, heat skillet to medium high heat with a bit of olive oil, and brown chopped sausage meat. Remove and reserve sausage, add wine to skillet, turn up heat and scrape up remaining browned bits while wine boils a minute or two. Pour reduced wine and browned bits on to reserved sausage.
3. Water should now be boiling, so add pasta to pot of water.
4. Wipe skillet used for the sausage clean, add a bit more olive oil, turn heat to medium and when hot, soften the green onions and garlic. When the green onions are softened, add chopped fresh tomato, salt, black pepper, and red pepper. Sauté for no more than one minute. Remove garlic and remove pan from heat.
5. When pasta is al dente, drain it and toss it with tomatoes & green onions, the sausage & wine mixture, the basil, and the diced mozzarella until the mozzarella begins to get just a little bit gooey.
Serves 4 or 5.
© Tom Casagrande 2008
Ingredients/prep
1 lb. package good quality penne or other pasta
12-ounce tub fresh mozzarella (drain cheese and cut into ¾" chunks)
3 mild Italian sausages (preferably homemade), skin removed , coarsely chopped
Half a bunch of green onions (scallions), chopped
12 basil leaves (chiffonaded, i.e., cut into thin ribbons)
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed but whole
4 med. tomatoes (seeds, gooey stuff, and ribs removed), cut into ½" pieces
¼ cup dry white wine
Fresh ground black pepper
Red pepper flakes
Sea salt
Directions
1. Get large pot of salted water boiling.
2. Meanwhile, heat skillet to medium high heat with a bit of olive oil, and brown chopped sausage meat. Remove and reserve sausage, add wine to skillet, turn up heat and scrape up remaining browned bits while wine boils a minute or two. Pour reduced wine and browned bits on to reserved sausage.
3. Water should now be boiling, so add pasta to pot of water.
4. Wipe skillet used for the sausage clean, add a bit more olive oil, turn heat to medium and when hot, soften the green onions and garlic. When the green onions are softened, add chopped fresh tomato, salt, black pepper, and red pepper. Sauté for no more than one minute. Remove garlic and remove pan from heat.
5. When pasta is al dente, drain it and toss it with tomatoes & green onions, the sausage & wine mixture, the basil, and the diced mozzarella until the mozzarella begins to get just a little bit gooey.
Serves 4 or 5.
© Tom Casagrande 2008
2001 Raymond Usseglio CHATEAUNEUF DU PAPE "Non-Filtre -- Girard" (Southern Rhone, France)
This Chateauneuf was disappointingly thin.
Eye: Medium ruby with brick at the rim.
Nose: Medium intensity but somewhat complex nose of Provencal herbs, smoke, iodine, and spicy berries.
Mouth: Lean and one dimensional on the palate, with intensely peppery, leathery, minerally flavors predominating, with some meek cassis fruit cowering in the corner. Decent length and balancing acidity. Not as weighty and ripe as I had expected.
Score: 86.
Cellar or drink? I would drink this up soon, as there simply isn't enough stuffing for further cellaring.
Price/store: Got this for about $29 at Flickinger Wines on the web.
Eye: Medium ruby with brick at the rim.
Nose: Medium intensity but somewhat complex nose of Provencal herbs, smoke, iodine, and spicy berries.Mouth: Lean and one dimensional on the palate, with intensely peppery, leathery, minerally flavors predominating, with some meek cassis fruit cowering in the corner. Decent length and balancing acidity. Not as weighty and ripe as I had expected.
Score: 86.
Cellar or drink? I would drink this up soon, as there simply isn't enough stuffing for further cellaring.
Price/store: Got this for about $29 at Flickinger Wines on the web.
2001 Casa Emma CHIANTI CLASSICO RISERVA (Tuscany, Italy)
The was the second of two amazing Tuscan wines we opened one night (to accompany my Tuscan braised meatloaf) while my parents were visiting from Massachusetts.
Eye: Dark, brickish ruby.
Nose: Sweet cherry, balsa wood, sweet, milky baking spices, and quartzy earth.
Mouth: Concentrated, lively flavors of penetrating, sweet-crisp cherries, ripe lemon juice, and leather. Like a ballet dancer it is so balanced, elegant, and lively.
Score: 92.
Cellar or drink? This is near its peak now, but will certainly hold and possible even improve in a cool cellar over the next 5 years.
Price/store: This was about $42 at Spec's on Smith.
Eye: Dark, brickish ruby.
Nose: Sweet cherry, balsa wood, sweet, milky baking spices, and quartzy earth.Mouth: Concentrated, lively flavors of penetrating, sweet-crisp cherries, ripe lemon juice, and leather. Like a ballet dancer it is so balanced, elegant, and lively.
Score: 92.
Cellar or drink? This is near its peak now, but will certainly hold and possible even improve in a cool cellar over the next 5 years.
Price/store: This was about $42 at Spec's on Smith.
1999 San Felice "VIGORELLO" (Tuscany, Italy)
This is a powerful, yet elegant example of a non-traditional style Sangiovese from Tuscany.
Eye: Very dark ruby with brick at the rim.Nose: Very complex nose of of sweet, spiced cherries, sweet vanilla spice, smoky cedarwood, and earth.
Mouth: Rich, deep, intense flavors, but with great elegance and uplift at the same time. Cassis, dry cherry syrup, fragrant earth and new leather flavors are all there. Long, long finish. Outstanding!
Cellar or drink? This will probably hold for another 5 years in a cool cellar, but I can't imagine it getting any better than it is now.
Score: 93.
Price/store: This was a very nice gift that someone gave to Liz at her 50th birthday party in 2006. I don't think the 1999 is available anymore -- although I've seen the 2001 (another terrific year in Tuscany) around (at Spec's, for example) for about $45.
Obama's Pastor: Broadcast of Sermon Soundbites Unfair
Senator Barack Obama's pastor of twenty years, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright told PBS host Bill Moyers that he felt the broadcast of sound bites from his sermons on various media outlets was unfair. "I felt it was unfair. I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt for those who were doing that were doing it for some very devious reasons," the pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ told Moyers during a video interview.
This week the North Carlolina GOP aired excerpts of the Reverend Wright's "God damn America" rants over the objections of Republican Presidential candidate John McCain.
Here is the ad in its entirety.
Michelle Malkin links to Katy's Conservative Corner who reports that contributions to the NCGOP have been pouring in as the phone at the state GOP headquarters has been ringing off the hook. The unveiling of the Ad has garnered the nefarious attentions of the lunatic fringe supporting Obama.
The state party is apparently receiving threats, as the Raleigh Police Department has been guarding NC GOP headquarters all day. The doors to the Hillsborough Street building are locked. After the firebombing of the same structure by anarchists a few years back, they've learned to expect the unexpected.
B. Hussein Obama's chickens have come home to roost.
This week the North Carlolina GOP aired excerpts of the Reverend Wright's "God damn America" rants over the objections of Republican Presidential candidate John McCain.
Here is the ad in its entirety.
Michelle Malkin links to Katy's Conservative Corner who reports that contributions to the NCGOP have been pouring in as the phone at the state GOP headquarters has been ringing off the hook. The unveiling of the Ad has garnered the nefarious attentions of the lunatic fringe supporting Obama.
The state party is apparently receiving threats, as the Raleigh Police Department has been guarding NC GOP headquarters all day. The doors to the Hillsborough Street building are locked. After the firebombing of the same structure by anarchists a few years back, they've learned to expect the unexpected.
B. Hussein Obama's chickens have come home to roost.
Barack; the Glass Candidate
Hillary Rodham Clinton was the clear winner in yesterday's Democratic presidential primary in Pennsylvania. Late internal polling by the New York Senator's campaign on Monday showed her with an 11 percentage point lead over her rival according to a report published in the Drudge Report.
An insider with Mrs. Clinton's campaign told The Drudge Report that in many regions of the Keystone state Senator Clinton held a 2 to 1 polling margin over Barack Obama. The Illinois Senator was left behind in a 10 pecentage point vote deficit after having to battle charges of elitisim after disparaging remarks he made about small town voters surfaced on the web while at an invitation only fundraiser at the San Francisco mansion of Gordan and Ann Getty. At that time the junior Senator from Illinois noted, "You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them,... And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,...".
An insider with Mrs. Clinton's campaign told The Drudge Report that in many regions of the Keystone state Senator Clinton held a 2 to 1 polling margin over Barack Obama. The Illinois Senator was left behind in a 10 pecentage point vote deficit after having to battle charges of elitisim after disparaging remarks he made about small town voters surfaced on the web while at an invitation only fundraiser at the San Francisco mansion of Gordan and Ann Getty. At that time the junior Senator from Illinois noted, "You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them,... And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,...".
Yesterday's victory for Mrs. Clinton underscores Jeb Babbin's observation in Thoroughly Beatable Barack that the Illinois Senator has a proverbial political glass jaw. Babbin notes; the supposedly-brilliant Democratic wunderkind can’t take a punch. Like a Hollywood actor, he’s only comfortable, quick and charismatic as long as the crowd is oohing and ahhing. But the moment that he is challenged -- as we first saw in his presser after he lost the Ohio primary in March and again last week in the ABC debate -- the mask shatters. What we see is what we would get with an Obama presidency: a man whose range is so small and ego so huge and fragile that when taken out of his comfort zone, he not only fails to shine, he barely is able to speak.
This congenital weakness of Obama was noted earlier in the campaign during his similarly poor performance while debating Mrs. Clinton on the eve of the South Carolina primary as the Clinton's played Rope-a-Dope with Obama.
During that oratorical exchange, Mrs. Clinton was able to get the cool-as-a-cucumber and logical Obama to look angry, flustered and petulant, qualities that would disqualify him as presidential material to voters in contrast to the Mandarin-like Junior Senator from New York who is well versed in maintaining her cool under pressure. In fact while on the stump in the Palmetto State (Former President) Clinton remarked 'I know you think it's crazy, but I kind of like to see Barack and Hillary fight,'. The tag team of Clinton and Clinton have Obama swinging at their gloves. The Clintons love a good fight and now they've led Obama to the ropes. Expect a knock-out punch from the duo in the eighth round.
We are now in the seventh round of the Clinton v. Obama match up and Obama isn't going to be the one left standing in the eighth round of this thrilla from Catawissa. The mainstream media outlets predictably in the Obama orbit are changing their spin mode from Clinton must have at least a double digit win in Pennsylvania to Clinton campaign suffering from cash shortfall. Despite having outspent his more experienced opponent by a margin of 3 to 1 Obama failed to win Pennsylvania, a key victory for the Clintons in what promises to be a final round dust up between the New York by way of Arkansas middle heavyweight and the Illinois by way of Indonesia welterweight wimp.
A Nation Of Spoiled Brats
You will rarely hear me speak negatively about this country. It is still the greatest nation on this planet. However, we are not as great as we were 70 years ago.
During the Great Depression and before, Americans were honest, hardworking, self-sufficient, and quick to lend a helping hand to someone in need. They didn't depend on the government to bail them out every time things didn't go as planned.
Contrast that with Americans today. We are dishonest, lazy, suckling babies who expect someone else to help us when we are in need due to our own lack of self control. The blame lies squarely in the hands of liberals who have created this class of dependents that expect the government to take care of their every need.
Current example: People who didn't plan ahead, who didn't exercise self control and suddenly find they can't pay their house mortgage. Solution - let the government reward them for their stupidity by forcing renegotiation of their mortgage contracts. Guess who doesn't get anything from the government? The people who planned ahead or are making extra effort to make their house payments. Is this a screwed up government or what?
I would not wish another depression upon this country but I do see how it would be beneficial. We are a nation of spoiled brats who need a very hard lesson in self-sufficiency and self-control.
The Flesh Failures / Let the Sunshine In
Tonight's "60 Minutes" included a segment on the resurgence of a restrengthened Taliban in Afghanistan, a more formidable fighting force that can compete with U.S. forces. How did we allow this to happen? Again, we were in Iraq and took our eye off the real target.
a dying nation...listening for the new-told lies. Let the sunshine in.
a dying nation...listening for the new-told lies. Let the sunshine in.
Pope Benedict XVI visits NYC Synagogue
Pope Benedict XVI became the first Pope in history to visit a U.S. synagogue with his visit to Park East Synagogue on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Welcomed by Rabbi Arthur Schneier the pontif remarked before the assembled congregation, "I find it moving to recall that Jesus, as a young boy, heard the words of Scripture and prayed in a place such as this."
The Pontiff brought his greetings for Passover and accepted gifts of matzo and a seder plate. In exchange Pope Benedict XVI brought a reproduction of a Jewish codex.
Rabbi Arthur Schneier told the congretants, "This momentous occasion takes places on American soil, where men and women escaping the clutches of oppression and religious persecution have built a nation of democracy and freedom. This is a nation which has allowed all religious communities to flourish."
It truly is uplifting when men of God are brought together to invoke His healing and renewal for all people of good will who are called by His name and for His purposes on earth.
As the Psalmist writes, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Psalm 133:1)
APNews has more coverage of the story here.
The Pontiff brought his greetings for Passover and accepted gifts of matzo and a seder plate. In exchange Pope Benedict XVI brought a reproduction of a Jewish codex.
Rabbi Arthur Schneier told the congretants, "This momentous occasion takes places on American soil, where men and women escaping the clutches of oppression and religious persecution have built a nation of democracy and freedom. This is a nation which has allowed all religious communities to flourish."
It truly is uplifting when men of God are brought together to invoke His healing and renewal for all people of good will who are called by His name and for His purposes on earth.
As the Psalmist writes, "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Psalm 133:1)
APNews has more coverage of the story here.
Corazon Espinado con Carlos Santana y Mana
Here's a break from politics as usual.
An oldie and goodie with Carlos Santana and Mana playing at the Latin Grammy's in 2000.
An oldie and goodie with Carlos Santana and Mana playing at the Latin Grammy's in 2000.
2005 Tir Na N'Og "Old Vines" GRENACHE (McLaren Vale, Australia)
Wow! This was a huge, hedonistic wine! Australia is best known for its Shirazes, but I think their most underrated varietal is Grenache (which is the primary varietal in many wines grown in the southern Rhone Valley in France, such as Chateauneuf-du-Pape), and this is one of the best I've had.
Eye: Deep, saturated, soft black ruby.
Nose: Amazing nose -- sweet, oozingly ripe spiced raspberries, blueberry and apricot too, with smoky carrot cake scents as well.
Mouth: Rich, weighty, deep flavors of ripe raspberry syrup, pepper, spicy minerals, and balsa wood. Great weight and concentration, yet softly-textured. Tremendously long finish.
Score: 92.
Cellar or drink? This will keep for a year or two, but my experience with Grenache-based wines this huge and ripe is that they're best drunk relatively young. As they age, the fruit recedes, and the alcohol (which is pushing 16% in this baby) starts to intrude.
Price/Store: $28 at Spec's on Smith.
Eye: Deep, saturated, soft black ruby.Nose: Amazing nose -- sweet, oozingly ripe spiced raspberries, blueberry and apricot too, with smoky carrot cake scents as well.
Mouth: Rich, weighty, deep flavors of ripe raspberry syrup, pepper, spicy minerals, and balsa wood. Great weight and concentration, yet softly-textured. Tremendously long finish.
Score: 92.
Cellar or drink? This will keep for a year or two, but my experience with Grenache-based wines this huge and ripe is that they're best drunk relatively young. As they age, the fruit recedes, and the alcohol (which is pushing 16% in this baby) starts to intrude.
Price/Store: $28 at Spec's on Smith.
2006 Château Mourgues du Gres "Les Galets Rosés" COSTIERES DE NÎMES ROSÉ (Rhone, France)
This was an earthy, dry rosé well-suit to a meal, rather than on its own as an aperitif.
Eye: Bright pink with a hint of orangey highlights.Nose: Rather complex nose for a rosé, with strawberry and watermelony fruit, minerals, and a distinct smoky earthiness.
Mouth: Lots of dry, up-front fruit and earthy minerally flavors, with good concentration and balance. Long, clean finish.
Score: 88.
Cellar or drink? As with all rosés, drink them while they're fresh!
Price/Store: Was $12.50 at Spec's on Smith.
2006 Viña Antigua SANGIOVESE-BONARDA (Maipu, Argentina)
This was a great value in a super-cheap red.
Eye: Medium ruby garnet color.
Nose: Needs time to open up, but once it does it displays a nice nose of sweet plums, lemon custard, and spiced, sweet apple wood.
Mouth: Medium-bodied, balanced flavors of smoky cherries and earth, with a surprisingly long (for the price), pure finish.
Score: 88.
Cellar or drink? Drink over the next year.
Price/Store: $5.24 at Spec's stores.
Eye: Medium ruby garnet color.
Nose: Needs time to open up, but once it does it displays a nice nose of sweet plums, lemon custard, and spiced, sweet apple wood.Mouth: Medium-bodied, balanced flavors of smoky cherries and earth, with a surprisingly long (for the price), pure finish.
Score: 88.
Cellar or drink? Drink over the next year.
Price/Store: $5.24 at Spec's stores.
2005 Jean-Claude Thevenet MACON-PIERRECLOS (Burgundy, France)
This Chardonnay from southern Burgundy had nice purity of fruit and minerality, unmarred by oak.
Eye: Beautiful light brassy gold.
Nose: Medium intensity nose sporting scents of pungent rock dust, toast, grape skins, and barely ripe peaches.
Mouth: Broadly-flavored and soft-textured, with white pepper and grape skin flavors. Good balancing acidity and relatively full body.
Cellar or drink? Drink over the next several months.
Score: 87.
Price/Store: Was $16 at Spec's on Westheimer.
Eye: Beautiful light brassy gold.
Nose: Medium intensity nose sporting scents of pungent rock dust, toast, grape skins, and barely ripe peaches.Mouth: Broadly-flavored and soft-textured, with white pepper and grape skin flavors. Good balancing acidity and relatively full body.
Cellar or drink? Drink over the next several months.
Score: 87.
Price/Store: Was $16 at Spec's on Westheimer.
2006 CARRO (Yecla, Spain)
This perennial good cheap red is again a good cheap red.
Eye: Dark, soft blackish ruby with some purply highlights at the rim.
Nose: Sweet, grapey, plummy nose, with back notes of lemon juice and balsa wood.
Mouth: Good, weighty, soft flavors: cherry, blackberry, and earthy underbrush notes. Soft, broad mouthfeel, with a little bit of tannin to spare.
Cellar or drink? Drink over the next year.
Score: 87.
Price/Store: $8 and change at Spec's on Smith.
Eye: Dark, soft blackish ruby with some purply highlights at the rim.Nose: Sweet, grapey, plummy nose, with back notes of lemon juice and balsa wood.
Mouth: Good, weighty, soft flavors: cherry, blackberry, and earthy underbrush notes. Soft, broad mouthfeel, with a little bit of tannin to spare.
Cellar or drink? Drink over the next year.
Score: 87.
Price/Store: $8 and change at Spec's on Smith.
Liberal Discrimination
Ultraliberal group America Coming Together has a new commercial that implies John McCain is too old to serve as president. In this commercial two young people list things that McCain is older than. In doing so, they disrespect every person who has McCain's age or older.
Liberals have established guidelines for hiring workers that prohibit businesses from discriminating based on age. However, true to liberal hypocrisy, they are discriminating against John McCain due to his age.
Since liberals think McCain is too old to be president, I think we should also prohibit any Democrats who are McCain's age or older from voting. They are just too old to vote.
Age doesn't equal wisdom (just look at Jimmy Carter) but youth does equal a lack of experience and maturity. How many other presidential candidates have you seen who give their opponent the bird, a la Obama?
Liberals have established guidelines for hiring workers that prohibit businesses from discriminating based on age. However, true to liberal hypocrisy, they are discriminating against John McCain due to his age.
Since liberals think McCain is too old to be president, I think we should also prohibit any Democrats who are McCain's age or older from voting. They are just too old to vote.
Age doesn't equal wisdom (just look at Jimmy Carter) but youth does equal a lack of experience and maturity. How many other presidential candidates have you seen who give their opponent the bird, a la Obama?
Obama's comment on small-town people in Pennsylvaina
ZombieTime has an audio of Barack Obama describing in essence for the ego gratification of his invitation-only audience in San Francisco that people living in small towns in Pennsylvania are unfortunate, racist, backward saps who cling to religion and guns.
Here's the audio.
Here's the audio.
"Silence Like a Cancer Grows..."
I remember listening to "Sounds of Silence" over and over on my incredibly portable turntable/radio combo on a rainy afternoon in the early '70's in our house in Washington DC. My Ninth Grade theology instructor encouraged us to read the words and contemplate their meaning for society...I think he had been at Woodstock. But I was listening to that song, stuck in traffic passing through Atlanta, when the line "silence like a cancer grows" leapt out at me and became the backbone for this column. I know I am late to the commentary game on Obama's speech about race and all the rancor surrounding the Reverend Wright story...as I scribe, a new controversy is erupting about how Obama feels small town Pennsylvanians are bitter rednecks who cuddle up with guns when they get disgruntled. But race is something that we do need to talk about in this country. The silence and the inability to speak openly about it has been a cancer growing in our society at different speeds since our very founding.
I was born in the year that the last veteran of the Civil War, a Confederate, died. (To be totally accurate, that claim may have been debunked, but I grew up with that thought and rather like the connection.) I was a history buff from an early age and took particular interest in the "War between the States," or just the "Waahr." A War in which almost 620,000 young men lost their lives, ostensibly to "free the slaves." Growing up overseas, for the most part, I was sheltered from the issues of race that were brewing in our country. I remember seeing images of race riots in Watts on the small black and white TV we owned and I have memories of the precautions my parents took when we were stateside in 1968 visiting Washington DC. Some of my earliest memories of being around black people were in my mother's hometown in Northwest Florida. I thought they were different and I knew that we generally didn't mingle with them, but I didn't think they were evil. I worked in a warehouse job in that same town and worked alongside black people for the first time in my life, when I had just graduated from high school and was getting ready to head off to Vanderbilt. Some were lazy and hid from tasks, like some of the older folk said they were. Some were downright machines and could lift and stow more palettes of 100 pound bags of feed in an hour than I could in an afternoon. But, you know what? There were white folks working that dock that split along the same lines. I didn't dislike blacks...I just disliked lazy people. When I got to Vanderbilt, the blacks all stuck together at their own table in Rand Cafeteria. A few, ventured into white society and were generally very popular, but most shied away. And white people dared not sit at their table. Our quarterback for the football team and I shared a last name and one on one we got along fine jokingly calling each other "Cuz." But when he was at "the table" I knew I dared not sit there; the one time I did, all conversation came to an abrupt halt.
In my Naval career I served with some incredible black men and some not so incredible...ditto the white folks, the Hispanics, the Orientals, the Jews, the....well, you get the point. Fast forward to a time about ten years ago when I got the call to serve jury duty. It was a murder trial and I really thought that in the voir dire process I would get the boot. I didn't and not only ended up on the jury, ended up the jury foreman. The case was pretty clean cut, they had a good confession. It was a black on black crime involving one party that had terrorized the murderer to the point that when he walked into a restaurant where the perp was eating lunch, said perp went out walked around the block, then went to his car to retrieve his pistole, entered the dining establishment and put half a clip into his nemesis. When the jury retired to "do justice," I found myself in a room with eleven other Americans, two of whom were black. I asked for a secret ballot just to get the flavor of where we were and how long it was going to take. The state was asking for life imprisonment on first degree murder. The vote came back 10-2 in favor of convicting. I confess, I was terrified that the two "nays" would be our black jurors and the whole discussion would devolve into a racial struggle. Explaining that we were going to have to sort it out, I asked if one of the "nays" would speak up. The black woman to my left raised her hand and then offered a very reasoned argument that, in her mind, she didn't see the pre-meditation necessary for first degree but was completely comfortable with second degree. I wrote that up on the white board in our deliberation room and we all agreed to visit that issue. I then asked for the other "nay" to give their argument...I was certain it would be the black gentleman to my right.
Nope, I got it dead wrong and one of the great moments in racial understanding unfolded. A showingly wealthy middle-aged white woman spoke up. "I just don't know which way to vote, because I don't understand black people," she said. "I mean, maybe it's their culture which I can't grasp, but it's not fair for me to stand in here and judge them."
Before I could catch my breath, the black gentleman on my right spoke out in disgust. "Lady, you don't have to be black...nor white...nor green or purple. One man killed another man, deliberately, there's nothing cultural about it!" The woman immediately changed her vote. It was a classic moment and it ties back to my theme here, which is this: there are good people and there are bad people. The great blogger, Bill Whittle, has a superlative view on this subject in a piece titled "Tribes," which after you get done with these last few paragraphs, I hope you will read.
Victor Frankl says there are "decent people and not decent people." And that's the nub of the matter and what offended me about Barack's now famous "race speech." It's not a cultural issue when a pastor of a church stands in front of his congregation and berates the country he lives in: "God damn America!" It is an issue of being wrong...of being bad, of not being decent. A country, I would add, that if he tried that stunt in about 90% of the other countries on our little blue planet, he would be locked up.
I was equally offended by Obama's view that "we have all had moments where our pastors, priests or rabbis said things we didn't agree with..." This is the old "everyone does it, it's no big deal" argument. I have been pretty diligent about church-going for a long time and no, I have never heard my priest berate my country. AND if I had, I would have gotten up and walked out. I have been challenged to make my country better, to do all the Christian things we should do - feed the hungry, clothe the poor. I have been lectured on the inequity of our nation's wealth and reflected on how to best take care of all. But I have never had bizarre theories about AIDS vaccines, cocaine and the Jews spewed at me. AND if I had, I would have gotten up and walked out. I have, on more than one occasion, debated a homilist about an issue they raised, but in general, in the churches I have attended the purpose of the service is to tend to our souls and not a brazen attempt to influence our votes.
The issue here is not the cultural nuance of the black liberation theology movement. The issue is judgment and core belief. Barack skillfully deflected these issues by blaming all white people for the mistreatment of blacks. I am sick and tired of black politicians and preachers hustling this issue and turning their constituencies into victims. Petty Officer Brooks and Seaman White, who were both black, were not victims of the culture - Brooks was a second-to-none sailor and White was dumb as a box of hammers...and I could pull examples of the same split with white sailors. If we are going to have a discussion of race, we are going to have to get over the past. I am blessed to be here in this country, period. If I dig deep enough in my geneological well, I can find some scrubby Highlander that was abused by the British...or a potato farmer or two in Ireland that damned near starved to death because of British abuse. But, you know what? I like the Brits...I'm over it. I can damn sure find some Yankees that didn't think to highly of my folks taking potshots at them at Stones River and Brice's Crossroads. Hey, my sister married a Yankee - we're over it. And this is not to make light at all of the unspeakable suffering of slavery; simply to say that none of us are victims in this country, unless we choose to be. And none of us should be exploited by that ill designed line of logic, no matter how silver-tongued the delivery. The question is "what do we do now?" Can we make an honest assessment of what has happened to the black family in almost fifty years of liberal patronization? The slavery of government subsidization to "victims" is as abhorrent as the cotton plantations of the mid-1800's.
The silence, the silence. What I just said would immediately be labeled RACIST! by the enablers of an Obama campaign. Geraldine Ferraro, spoke accurately when she said that Obama has only gotten this far because he is a black man. She was fired because, God forbid, we don't want to be labeled a RACIST! She said something else in that moment that was candid and honest, namely, that she never would have been on the VP ticket if her name had been "Gerard." But we can't talk about it.
John McCain was in Memphis this week and offered an apology for not voting for the Martin Luther King Birthday as a Holiday Bill. He was roundly booed and jeered. Once you are a RACIST! you can't even apologize! The cancer grows.
Perhaps, if Obama is nominated as the Democratic contender, we may finally have the opportunity to put race behind us, but we will not be able to do it if we can't speak openly. Both candidates should be the subject of a no-holds-barred scrutiny where we get to look at their intelligence, their judgment, their plans for our future. But no one should be above the fray because of their race. It is time that we have the opportunity to drown out the silence.
I was born in the year that the last veteran of the Civil War, a Confederate, died. (To be totally accurate, that claim may have been debunked, but I grew up with that thought and rather like the connection.) I was a history buff from an early age and took particular interest in the "War between the States," or just the "Waahr." A War in which almost 620,000 young men lost their lives, ostensibly to "free the slaves." Growing up overseas, for the most part, I was sheltered from the issues of race that were brewing in our country. I remember seeing images of race riots in Watts on the small black and white TV we owned and I have memories of the precautions my parents took when we were stateside in 1968 visiting Washington DC. Some of my earliest memories of being around black people were in my mother's hometown in Northwest Florida. I thought they were different and I knew that we generally didn't mingle with them, but I didn't think they were evil. I worked in a warehouse job in that same town and worked alongside black people for the first time in my life, when I had just graduated from high school and was getting ready to head off to Vanderbilt. Some were lazy and hid from tasks, like some of the older folk said they were. Some were downright machines and could lift and stow more palettes of 100 pound bags of feed in an hour than I could in an afternoon. But, you know what? There were white folks working that dock that split along the same lines. I didn't dislike blacks...I just disliked lazy people. When I got to Vanderbilt, the blacks all stuck together at their own table in Rand Cafeteria. A few, ventured into white society and were generally very popular, but most shied away. And white people dared not sit at their table. Our quarterback for the football team and I shared a last name and one on one we got along fine jokingly calling each other "Cuz." But when he was at "the table" I knew I dared not sit there; the one time I did, all conversation came to an abrupt halt.
In my Naval career I served with some incredible black men and some not so incredible...ditto the white folks, the Hispanics, the Orientals, the Jews, the....well, you get the point. Fast forward to a time about ten years ago when I got the call to serve jury duty. It was a murder trial and I really thought that in the voir dire process I would get the boot. I didn't and not only ended up on the jury, ended up the jury foreman. The case was pretty clean cut, they had a good confession. It was a black on black crime involving one party that had terrorized the murderer to the point that when he walked into a restaurant where the perp was eating lunch, said perp went out walked around the block, then went to his car to retrieve his pistole, entered the dining establishment and put half a clip into his nemesis. When the jury retired to "do justice," I found myself in a room with eleven other Americans, two of whom were black. I asked for a secret ballot just to get the flavor of where we were and how long it was going to take. The state was asking for life imprisonment on first degree murder. The vote came back 10-2 in favor of convicting. I confess, I was terrified that the two "nays" would be our black jurors and the whole discussion would devolve into a racial struggle. Explaining that we were going to have to sort it out, I asked if one of the "nays" would speak up. The black woman to my left raised her hand and then offered a very reasoned argument that, in her mind, she didn't see the pre-meditation necessary for first degree but was completely comfortable with second degree. I wrote that up on the white board in our deliberation room and we all agreed to visit that issue. I then asked for the other "nay" to give their argument...I was certain it would be the black gentleman to my right.
Nope, I got it dead wrong and one of the great moments in racial understanding unfolded. A showingly wealthy middle-aged white woman spoke up. "I just don't know which way to vote, because I don't understand black people," she said. "I mean, maybe it's their culture which I can't grasp, but it's not fair for me to stand in here and judge them."
Before I could catch my breath, the black gentleman on my right spoke out in disgust. "Lady, you don't have to be black...nor white...nor green or purple. One man killed another man, deliberately, there's nothing cultural about it!" The woman immediately changed her vote. It was a classic moment and it ties back to my theme here, which is this: there are good people and there are bad people. The great blogger, Bill Whittle, has a superlative view on this subject in a piece titled "Tribes," which after you get done with these last few paragraphs, I hope you will read.
Victor Frankl says there are "decent people and not decent people." And that's the nub of the matter and what offended me about Barack's now famous "race speech." It's not a cultural issue when a pastor of a church stands in front of his congregation and berates the country he lives in: "God damn America!" It is an issue of being wrong...of being bad, of not being decent. A country, I would add, that if he tried that stunt in about 90% of the other countries on our little blue planet, he would be locked up.
I was equally offended by Obama's view that "we have all had moments where our pastors, priests or rabbis said things we didn't agree with..." This is the old "everyone does it, it's no big deal" argument. I have been pretty diligent about church-going for a long time and no, I have never heard my priest berate my country. AND if I had, I would have gotten up and walked out. I have been challenged to make my country better, to do all the Christian things we should do - feed the hungry, clothe the poor. I have been lectured on the inequity of our nation's wealth and reflected on how to best take care of all. But I have never had bizarre theories about AIDS vaccines, cocaine and the Jews spewed at me. AND if I had, I would have gotten up and walked out. I have, on more than one occasion, debated a homilist about an issue they raised, but in general, in the churches I have attended the purpose of the service is to tend to our souls and not a brazen attempt to influence our votes.
The issue here is not the cultural nuance of the black liberation theology movement. The issue is judgment and core belief. Barack skillfully deflected these issues by blaming all white people for the mistreatment of blacks. I am sick and tired of black politicians and preachers hustling this issue and turning their constituencies into victims. Petty Officer Brooks and Seaman White, who were both black, were not victims of the culture - Brooks was a second-to-none sailor and White was dumb as a box of hammers...and I could pull examples of the same split with white sailors. If we are going to have a discussion of race, we are going to have to get over the past. I am blessed to be here in this country, period. If I dig deep enough in my geneological well, I can find some scrubby Highlander that was abused by the British...or a potato farmer or two in Ireland that damned near starved to death because of British abuse. But, you know what? I like the Brits...I'm over it. I can damn sure find some Yankees that didn't think to highly of my folks taking potshots at them at Stones River and Brice's Crossroads. Hey, my sister married a Yankee - we're over it. And this is not to make light at all of the unspeakable suffering of slavery; simply to say that none of us are victims in this country, unless we choose to be. And none of us should be exploited by that ill designed line of logic, no matter how silver-tongued the delivery. The question is "what do we do now?" Can we make an honest assessment of what has happened to the black family in almost fifty years of liberal patronization? The slavery of government subsidization to "victims" is as abhorrent as the cotton plantations of the mid-1800's.
The silence, the silence. What I just said would immediately be labeled RACIST! by the enablers of an Obama campaign. Geraldine Ferraro, spoke accurately when she said that Obama has only gotten this far because he is a black man. She was fired because, God forbid, we don't want to be labeled a RACIST! She said something else in that moment that was candid and honest, namely, that she never would have been on the VP ticket if her name had been "Gerard." But we can't talk about it.
John McCain was in Memphis this week and offered an apology for not voting for the Martin Luther King Birthday as a Holiday Bill. He was roundly booed and jeered. Once you are a RACIST! you can't even apologize! The cancer grows.
Perhaps, if Obama is nominated as the Democratic contender, we may finally have the opportunity to put race behind us, but we will not be able to do it if we can't speak openly. Both candidates should be the subject of a no-holds-barred scrutiny where we get to look at their intelligence, their judgment, their plans for our future. But no one should be above the fray because of their race. It is time that we have the opportunity to drown out the silence.
Obama: Small town people in PA cling to Guns or Religion or Xenophobia
Barack Obama steps in it again. His disdain and contempt for America and it's people can't help but leak out of him through the hateful statements made by his wife, his pastor, his associates or the candidate himself.
Here we see one of the limousines pull up in front of one of the Getty homes in San Francisco for an invitation-only Obama fundraiser in the city's most exclusive neighborhoods. The area is commonly refered to as Billionaires row. ZombieTime covered the event here. It was at this venue that Obama allegedly made his disparaging remarks about small-town voters.
While hobnobbing with the smart set at the Pacific Heights home of Gordan and Ann Getty in San Francisco, Obama apparently made deragoratory remarks about the "little people" of Pennsylvania he wants to vote for him while breaking pate' with the Bay Area swells.
Explaining to his well-heeled hosts how the other half lives, Obama said of the small town voters in the Keystone state, "You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them,... And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,..."
No doubt the candidate was trying to relate his story on the plight of poor rubes living in small town America in a manner that the assembled crowd of typical white persons gathered to contribute to his campaign would readily be able to comprehend.
While in the company of like-minded liberals who view themselves as superior to their small-town bretheren, Obama betrays his scornful opinion of people who make up the American heartland as small minded, superstitious, bigoted little folk and looks upon them with the same disdainful detachment as would his anthropologist mother observing a primitive people. I have a suggestion for the title of the genteel Senator's next book; The Audacity of Unmitigated Gall.
The story of the Obamassiah's latest stumble first ran on the Huffington Post and was picked up by Ben Smith's Blog and has since gone viral, much like the sermons of Obama's racist, anti-American, anti-Semitic "Pastor" of twenty years the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Of course the Senator never heard anything offensive coming from the pulpit in twenty years of attending Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
The foibles of Barack Hussein Obama just keep rolling in as the campaign for the Presidency trolls on toward November. One thing Hillary Clinton can say about Obama's Presidential campaign is that it's the gift that keeps on giving. Why a person could almost dedicate an entire website to the lies, obfuscations and distortions of the Junior Senator from Illinois as has SlickBarry.com.
Expect to see the Senator convene a "major" news conference in front of the first Starbucks to explain how his elitist remarks about America's heartland and its people should be interpreted within the proper "context".
Here we see one of the limousines pull up in front of one of the Getty homes in San Francisco for an invitation-only Obama fundraiser in the city's most exclusive neighborhoods. The area is commonly refered to as Billionaires row. ZombieTime covered the event here. It was at this venue that Obama allegedly made his disparaging remarks about small-town voters.
While hobnobbing with the smart set at the Pacific Heights home of Gordan and Ann Getty in San Francisco, Obama apparently made deragoratory remarks about the "little people" of Pennsylvania he wants to vote for him while breaking pate' with the Bay Area swells.
Explaining to his well-heeled hosts how the other half lives, Obama said of the small town voters in the Keystone state, "You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them,... And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,..."
No doubt the candidate was trying to relate his story on the plight of poor rubes living in small town America in a manner that the assembled crowd of typical white persons gathered to contribute to his campaign would readily be able to comprehend.
While in the company of like-minded liberals who view themselves as superior to their small-town bretheren, Obama betrays his scornful opinion of people who make up the American heartland as small minded, superstitious, bigoted little folk and looks upon them with the same disdainful detachment as would his anthropologist mother observing a primitive people. I have a suggestion for the title of the genteel Senator's next book; The Audacity of Unmitigated Gall.
The story of the Obamassiah's latest stumble first ran on the Huffington Post and was picked up by Ben Smith's Blog and has since gone viral, much like the sermons of Obama's racist, anti-American, anti-Semitic "Pastor" of twenty years the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Of course the Senator never heard anything offensive coming from the pulpit in twenty years of attending Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
The foibles of Barack Hussein Obama just keep rolling in as the campaign for the Presidency trolls on toward November. One thing Hillary Clinton can say about Obama's Presidential campaign is that it's the gift that keeps on giving. Why a person could almost dedicate an entire website to the lies, obfuscations and distortions of the Junior Senator from Illinois as has SlickBarry.com.
Expect to see the Senator convene a "major" news conference in front of the first Starbucks to explain how his elitist remarks about America's heartland and its people should be interpreted within the proper "context".
FAA's Grounding of American Airlines MD80: Example of Why the Government shouldn't run Healthcare
American Airlines has been reeling from the effects of even more flight cancellations since its last round of cancellations due to wheel-well wiring issues on the company's fleet of MD-80 jets. This morning another 570 flights were cancelled by the airline according to WCBS-TV.
Democrat Charles Shumer places the blame squarely at the feet of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Schumer said the Federal Aviation Administration's aggressive inspections of wiring in the wheel wells of MD-80 planes is too late, too haphazard and needlessly plunged America's aviation system and even the economy into chaos.
"You can be tough and smart," Schumer said. "You can tell American we are going to inspect this plane at this airport at this time. Make sure you have a back up."
According to American Airlines Chief Executive Officer Gerard Arpey and Executive Vice President Dan Garton, the present arrangement of the wiring bundles in the wheel wells posed no threat to traveler's or air crew's safety.
The failure to meet FAA specifications regarding the wheel- well wiring wasn't a safety issue, Garton and Arpey said. The CEO spoke at a Oneworld airline alliance press conference in Marina del Rey, California.
Garton said American concluded that it had met the FAA's safety directive when it grounded the MD-80s on March 26 and 27 for fixes to the wiring bundles. Those planes weren't reinspected by the FAA before they returned to service.
In the FAA spot checks that began on April 7, inspectors found that the attachment of the wiring bundles didn't match agency specifications such as the orientation of certain clamps and ties, Garton said. Mechanics ``had taken certain latitudes'' in the work, Garton said, not realizing the ``greater emphasis on strict compliance'' at the FAA since U.S. lawmakers began raising questions last month about its oversight of airline maintenance.
``It's a question of how we did the work, not whether we did it,'' Garton said. ``We now understand the rules have gone to a very strict level of enforcement. We will meet that and get the planes in the air.''
So because the arrangement of the wiring bundles by experienced mechanics doesn't line up with the exact dot and tiddle of FAA specifications American has to strand nearly 250,000 passengers as of this week and take the additional promotional and financial hits that result from having to cancel thousands of flights. The Airline and its passengers have to go through all of this chaos not because of an actual safety issue but to observe an FAA protocol as to how the wiring is to be mounted in the wheel well of an MD80.
Can you imagine how the Government would handle healthcare for its citizens?
Democrat Charles Shumer places the blame squarely at the feet of the Federal Aviation Administration.
Schumer said the Federal Aviation Administration's aggressive inspections of wiring in the wheel wells of MD-80 planes is too late, too haphazard and needlessly plunged America's aviation system and even the economy into chaos.
"You can be tough and smart," Schumer said. "You can tell American we are going to inspect this plane at this airport at this time. Make sure you have a back up."
According to American Airlines Chief Executive Officer Gerard Arpey and Executive Vice President Dan Garton, the present arrangement of the wiring bundles in the wheel wells posed no threat to traveler's or air crew's safety.
The failure to meet FAA specifications regarding the wheel- well wiring wasn't a safety issue, Garton and Arpey said. The CEO spoke at a Oneworld airline alliance press conference in Marina del Rey, California.
Garton said American concluded that it had met the FAA's safety directive when it grounded the MD-80s on March 26 and 27 for fixes to the wiring bundles. Those planes weren't reinspected by the FAA before they returned to service.
In the FAA spot checks that began on April 7, inspectors found that the attachment of the wiring bundles didn't match agency specifications such as the orientation of certain clamps and ties, Garton said. Mechanics ``had taken certain latitudes'' in the work, Garton said, not realizing the ``greater emphasis on strict compliance'' at the FAA since U.S. lawmakers began raising questions last month about its oversight of airline maintenance.
``It's a question of how we did the work, not whether we did it,'' Garton said. ``We now understand the rules have gone to a very strict level of enforcement. We will meet that and get the planes in the air.''
So because the arrangement of the wiring bundles by experienced mechanics doesn't line up with the exact dot and tiddle of FAA specifications American has to strand nearly 250,000 passengers as of this week and take the additional promotional and financial hits that result from having to cancel thousands of flights. The Airline and its passengers have to go through all of this chaos not because of an actual safety issue but to observe an FAA protocol as to how the wiring is to be mounted in the wheel well of an MD80.
Can you imagine how the Government would handle healthcare for its citizens?
Camille Paglia takes on Hillary's Girly Men
Camile Paglia comments on the caliber of the men who gather around Hillary Clinton's campaign in Salon.com today. Writing an opinion piece titled, Hillary's slick willies paglia throws a straight right at the weak men that make up the Clinton campaign's inner-sanctum.
The men you always see under her are to a person passive-aggressive, sadistic, mean, little, petty beta-male pieces of work who would not naturally succeed in a common male-type hierarchy. By that I mean an environment that values straightforward achievement rather than the darker political arts. ..... Hillary's persona is simply not compatible with another strong will, male or female -- but definitely male, and that itself is a big red flag.
One reader lands an inside power punch when he comments, the male staff who Hillary attracts are slick, geeky weasels or rancid, asexual cream puffs. (One of the latter, the insufferable Mark Penn, just got the heave-ho after he played Hillary for a patsy with the Colombian government.)
Priceless.
The men you always see under her are to a person passive-aggressive, sadistic, mean, little, petty beta-male pieces of work who would not naturally succeed in a common male-type hierarchy. By that I mean an environment that values straightforward achievement rather than the darker political arts. ..... Hillary's persona is simply not compatible with another strong will, male or female -- but definitely male, and that itself is a big red flag.
One reader lands an inside power punch when he comments, the male staff who Hillary attracts are slick, geeky weasels or rancid, asexual cream puffs. (One of the latter, the insufferable Mark Penn, just got the heave-ho after he played Hillary for a patsy with the Colombian government.)
Priceless.
Obama and Hillary the U.S.A.'s twin answer to Neville Chamberlain
British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke observed, "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." History is clearly not the strong suit of the modern Democratic party and their top tier candidates Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Elected as Prime Minister of Great Britain in May of 1937 Neville Chamberlain believed that Germany had been treated badly after Armistice and subsequent Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. Not wanting to plunge his nation into another war with Germany Chamberlain believed that if he could appease Hitler and Mussolini that he could save Europe from another confligration with the resurgent "New Germany". Unfortunately for Chamberlain and those who banked on his policy of "peace in our time", negotiation and "meeting the other party half-way" only works when the fellow sitting across the table from you is also bargaining in good faith. Neither Hitler nor Mussolini were the type to bargain in good faith and only saw negotiations with the well-mannered Chamberlain as a sign of Western decadence and weakness before an ascendant Third Reich a new Roman Empire.
Here we have an old newsreel recounting the events and hopes surrounding a major conference between Chamberlain and Herr Hitler. Note how the tone of excited anticipation underscores the newsreels coverage of this event as well as the media's effort to legitimize Hitler's Nationalist Socialist regime as a partner in peace. Note the air of anticipation conveyed in the newsreel as though a solid breakthrough is about to occur in Anglo-German relations.
In the following reel Chamberlain is shown holding up a worthless scrap of paper signed by Adolf Hitler as a guarantee to the British people of his promisses to avoid war and pursue peace with the Western powers. The film is slowed down to underline the preposterousness of Chamberlain's faith that a thin piece of paper signed by the Nazi warlord during the Munich Agreement signified a breakthrough in the diplomatic stalemate that occured with Britain and France with Hitler's insistance in acquiring the Sudetenland for Germany.
In this segment Senator Obama explains to General Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker his belief in a "diplomatic surge" the includes negotiations with Iran. Senator Obama postulates that if the Iraqi government can pursue peaceful relations with Iran then the U.S. should as well. True. However that only works if Iran really wants to pursue peace with the United States and not continue as it has even up to the present week in initiating fighting in Basra and with mortaring diplomats in Bagdad's "Green Zone".
Here's the tape.
Not to be outdone, Senator Clinton drifts before the cameras during Senate Armed Services committee hearings on the state of progress in Iraq to cite her desire to remove American forces from Iraq and redeploy to Afghanistan. In one of the graphics put up by CSPAN, the Senator is quoted as saying that she would have U.S. forces quit Iraq in as little as 60 days if elected President. I question why the Democrats are in such a hurry to abandon Iraq post haste and move forces to a relatively quiet theatre of war in Afghanistan and leave that strategically located nation with all its resources, infrastructure and wealth to the tender mercies of al Qaeda sympathizers. Now that the surge has been shown to be a success on the military and political fronts despite Democrat and New York Times assertions to the contrary, all that remains in Iraq are some mopping up operations of Iran supported resistance to the Maliki government. But today's Democratic leadership wants to abandon Iraq to have our military chase moonbeams in some remote backwaters of the world to look for terrorists while the real centerpiece of the war on terror is Iraq. As Julius Caesar would say, "Quo Bono?" Who Benefits?
The main beneficiaries of such a blundering policy would be the governments of Iran and Syria. So why the big Democrat push to leave the door wide open for the two nations in the region that have been sneaking fighters into Iraq to simply saunter in after we "redeploy" forces under a Democrat inspired middle-east policy under the guise of "protecting our troops", "preserving the national treature" and "looking for terrorist hideouts"? The big fight is in Iraq, the terrorists themselves have said this so why are the Democrats in such a hurry to leave?
The following video shows Mrs. Clinton's statements before the Senate Armed Services committee where she quote's a New York Times article of all things (She may as well have quoted Al-Jezzira) on the emotional toll the war is having on returning Veterans. (An article which by the way was found to have been highly suspect in its sourcing and viewpoint) And goes on to misquote General Petraeus on the status of the political and military progress made in Iraq.
No matter how things change they always manage to stay the same. Today's Democratic party leadership have decided to apply Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement with the modern-day Hitler and Mussolini of our time; Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Bashar Al-Assad of Syria. They obviously think that with their charm and intelligence they can persuade Ahmadinejad and Al-Assad to see the error of their ways and reach an accommodation with the high minded liberals of the Democratic establishment.
Elected as Prime Minister of Great Britain in May of 1937 Neville Chamberlain believed that Germany had been treated badly after Armistice and subsequent Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. Not wanting to plunge his nation into another war with Germany Chamberlain believed that if he could appease Hitler and Mussolini that he could save Europe from another confligration with the resurgent "New Germany". Unfortunately for Chamberlain and those who banked on his policy of "peace in our time", negotiation and "meeting the other party half-way" only works when the fellow sitting across the table from you is also bargaining in good faith. Neither Hitler nor Mussolini were the type to bargain in good faith and only saw negotiations with the well-mannered Chamberlain as a sign of Western decadence and weakness before an ascendant Third Reich a new Roman Empire.
Here we have an old newsreel recounting the events and hopes surrounding a major conference between Chamberlain and Herr Hitler. Note how the tone of excited anticipation underscores the newsreels coverage of this event as well as the media's effort to legitimize Hitler's Nationalist Socialist regime as a partner in peace. Note the air of anticipation conveyed in the newsreel as though a solid breakthrough is about to occur in Anglo-German relations.
In the following reel Chamberlain is shown holding up a worthless scrap of paper signed by Adolf Hitler as a guarantee to the British people of his promisses to avoid war and pursue peace with the Western powers. The film is slowed down to underline the preposterousness of Chamberlain's faith that a thin piece of paper signed by the Nazi warlord during the Munich Agreement signified a breakthrough in the diplomatic stalemate that occured with Britain and France with Hitler's insistance in acquiring the Sudetenland for Germany.
In this segment Senator Obama explains to General Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker his belief in a "diplomatic surge" the includes negotiations with Iran. Senator Obama postulates that if the Iraqi government can pursue peaceful relations with Iran then the U.S. should as well. True. However that only works if Iran really wants to pursue peace with the United States and not continue as it has even up to the present week in initiating fighting in Basra and with mortaring diplomats in Bagdad's "Green Zone".
Here's the tape.
Not to be outdone, Senator Clinton drifts before the cameras during Senate Armed Services committee hearings on the state of progress in Iraq to cite her desire to remove American forces from Iraq and redeploy to Afghanistan. In one of the graphics put up by CSPAN, the Senator is quoted as saying that she would have U.S. forces quit Iraq in as little as 60 days if elected President. I question why the Democrats are in such a hurry to abandon Iraq post haste and move forces to a relatively quiet theatre of war in Afghanistan and leave that strategically located nation with all its resources, infrastructure and wealth to the tender mercies of al Qaeda sympathizers. Now that the surge has been shown to be a success on the military and political fronts despite Democrat and New York Times assertions to the contrary, all that remains in Iraq are some mopping up operations of Iran supported resistance to the Maliki government. But today's Democratic leadership wants to abandon Iraq to have our military chase moonbeams in some remote backwaters of the world to look for terrorists while the real centerpiece of the war on terror is Iraq. As Julius Caesar would say, "Quo Bono?" Who Benefits?
The main beneficiaries of such a blundering policy would be the governments of Iran and Syria. So why the big Democrat push to leave the door wide open for the two nations in the region that have been sneaking fighters into Iraq to simply saunter in after we "redeploy" forces under a Democrat inspired middle-east policy under the guise of "protecting our troops", "preserving the national treature" and "looking for terrorist hideouts"? The big fight is in Iraq, the terrorists themselves have said this so why are the Democrats in such a hurry to leave?
The following video shows Mrs. Clinton's statements before the Senate Armed Services committee where she quote's a New York Times article of all things (She may as well have quoted Al-Jezzira) on the emotional toll the war is having on returning Veterans. (An article which by the way was found to have been highly suspect in its sourcing and viewpoint) And goes on to misquote General Petraeus on the status of the political and military progress made in Iraq.
No matter how things change they always manage to stay the same. Today's Democratic party leadership have decided to apply Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement with the modern-day Hitler and Mussolini of our time; Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Bashar Al-Assad of Syria. They obviously think that with their charm and intelligence they can persuade Ahmadinejad and Al-Assad to see the error of their ways and reach an accommodation with the high minded liberals of the Democratic establishment.
Dreams of Barack's Father
Presto Pundit uncovers a critique by Barack Obama Sr. of a policy paper written by pro-Western Kenyan political leader Tom Mboya. The Senior Obama, a Harvard educated economist was very critical of the paper, writing that it was "neither African nor socialist enough."
Presto Pundit notes that authors E. S. Atieno Odhiambo and David William Cohen in their book The Risks of Knowledge published by the Ohio University Press, copyright 2004 cite among the positions put forth by the Senior Obama in his attacks on Mboya's paper published in the East Africa Journal were:
1. Obama advocated the communal ownership of land and the forced confiscation of privately controlled land, as part of a forced "development plan", an important element of his attack on the government's advocacy of private ownership, land titles, and property registration. (p. 29 of The Risks of Knowledge)
2. Obama advocated the nationalization of "European" and "Asian" owned enterprises, including hotels, with the control of these operations handed over to the "indigenous" black population. (pp. 32 -33)
3. Obama advocated dramatically increasing taxation on "the rich" even up to the 100% level, arguing that, "there is no limit to taxation if the benefits derived from public services by society measure up to the cost in taxation which they have to pay" (p. 30) and that, "Theoretically, there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed." (p. 31)
Nice.
In 2003 Philip Ochieng, an editor with the Nation Media Group wrote his impressions of Obama Sr. as charming, generous and extraordinarily clever, Obama Senior was also imperious, cruel and given to boasting about his brain and his wealth.
It was this kind of boasting that proved his undoing in the Kenyatta system – although, as he said, there was tribalism in it –and left him without a job, plunged him into prolonged poverty and dangerously wounded his ego.
Early on in the blog post Presto Pundit quotes Senator Obama on the driving source of his inspiration as he writes in Dreams For My Father that, "All of my life, I carried a single image of my father, one that I .. tried to take as my own.".... Obama cites his image of "the father of my dreams, the man in my mother's stories, full of high-blown ideals .." and "It was into my father's image .. that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself."
Given the company the Senator keeps with the likes of Frank Marshall Davis whom Obama simply refers to as "Frank" in his book Dreams From My Father, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers and others I'd say that even in the 21st century the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree.
I see a man on a mission to connect with and fulfill the unrealized legacy of his father, fueled by a longing for approval from a vital man in his life that he did not know.
Presto Pundit notes that authors E. S. Atieno Odhiambo and David William Cohen in their book The Risks of Knowledge published by the Ohio University Press, copyright 2004 cite among the positions put forth by the Senior Obama in his attacks on Mboya's paper published in the East Africa Journal were:
1. Obama advocated the communal ownership of land and the forced confiscation of privately controlled land, as part of a forced "development plan", an important element of his attack on the government's advocacy of private ownership, land titles, and property registration. (p. 29 of The Risks of Knowledge)
2. Obama advocated the nationalization of "European" and "Asian" owned enterprises, including hotels, with the control of these operations handed over to the "indigenous" black population. (pp. 32 -33)
3. Obama advocated dramatically increasing taxation on "the rich" even up to the 100% level, arguing that, "there is no limit to taxation if the benefits derived from public services by society measure up to the cost in taxation which they have to pay" (p. 30) and that, "Theoretically, there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed." (p. 31)
Nice.
In 2003 Philip Ochieng, an editor with the Nation Media Group wrote his impressions of Obama Sr. as charming, generous and extraordinarily clever, Obama Senior was also imperious, cruel and given to boasting about his brain and his wealth.
It was this kind of boasting that proved his undoing in the Kenyatta system – although, as he said, there was tribalism in it –and left him without a job, plunged him into prolonged poverty and dangerously wounded his ego.
Early on in the blog post Presto Pundit quotes Senator Obama on the driving source of his inspiration as he writes in Dreams For My Father that, "All of my life, I carried a single image of my father, one that I .. tried to take as my own.".... Obama cites his image of "the father of my dreams, the man in my mother's stories, full of high-blown ideals .." and "It was into my father's image .. that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself."
Given the company the Senator keeps with the likes of Frank Marshall Davis whom Obama simply refers to as "Frank" in his book Dreams From My Father, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers and others I'd say that even in the 21st century the apple doesn't fall very far from the tree.
I see a man on a mission to connect with and fulfill the unrealized legacy of his father, fueled by a longing for approval from a vital man in his life that he did not know.
ABC News Spotlights Obama / Clinton Support Among Troops
I just know we're going to get revelations that ABC cherry-picked the minority of American Soldiers that support Obama and Clinton in the upcoming 2008 election while glossing over the majority of those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan who support McCain but here is a link to ABC's story on the Surprising Political Endorsements by U.S. Troops.
Of course there will be members of the military who trend on the liberal side in their politics but it's hard to reconcile the belief that a sizeable contingent of voters serving in the military would support a candidate who advocates these positions in regard to the defense of the nation.
Of course there will be members of the military who trend on the liberal side in their politics but it's hard to reconcile the belief that a sizeable contingent of voters serving in the military would support a candidate who advocates these positions in regard to the defense of the nation.
2005 Bouchard Ainé BEAUNE PREMIER CRU CLOS DU ROI (Burgundy, France)
At my first wine job in NYC out of college, the importer I worked for (Paramount Brands) used to sell Bouchard-Ainé burgundies, and they were very good values at the time. Since the mid-1980s, however, I haven't seen this negociant's wines around. When I saw a few of them show up in Spec's, I had to try one. Unfortunately, this wasn't worth the hefty price I paid, as this lighter-styled French Pinot Noir could have used a bit more ripeness. (To be fair, at $38, this wine is actually priced on the cheaper end of premier crus from the 2005 vintage, but that's a lot of money for me.)
Eye: Dark violet/ruby color.
Nose: High-toned nose of sappy yet tart cherries, and perfumed chalk dust.
Mouth: Medium-bodied, with crisp flavors of stones, tart cherries and plums, and smoky balsa wood. Long finish, with fairly high acidity and some youthful tannin. All in all, a crisper, almost austere style of Pinot Noir.
Cellar or drink? I think it would be a gamble to cellar this one more than a year in the hopes that it will flesh out -- I just don't think it has the necessary ripeness to transform itself into a more generous style of wine.
Score: 87.
Price/store: Was $38 at Spec's on Richmond.
Eye: Dark violet/ruby color.Nose: High-toned nose of sappy yet tart cherries, and perfumed chalk dust.
Mouth: Medium-bodied, with crisp flavors of stones, tart cherries and plums, and smoky balsa wood. Long finish, with fairly high acidity and some youthful tannin. All in all, a crisper, almost austere style of Pinot Noir.
Cellar or drink? I think it would be a gamble to cellar this one more than a year in the hopes that it will flesh out -- I just don't think it has the necessary ripeness to transform itself into a more generous style of wine.
Score: 87.
Price/store: Was $38 at Spec's on Richmond.
2005 Domaine du Cassan BEAUMES DE VENISE (Côtes du Rhône, France)
This wine was fragrant and nice, but could have used a touch more concentration.
Eye: Bright, deep plummy-ruby color.
Nose: Vivacious aromas of spicy cherry, stony minerals, black pepper, and "garrigue" (a smell reminiscent of the hot, dry aromas of herbs growing wild in Provence).
Mouth: Broad, soft mouthfeel upon entry, with lots of soft but coarse tannin. Flavors of bitter cherry, pungent minerals, and scorched earth, but with a slight lack of depth in the mid-palate. A distinctive wine that needs stews or pasta with meat sauce to shine.
Cellar or drink? This may soften in a year or so, but the shortcoming with concentration would make anything beyond that risky.
Score: 86.
Price/store: I think I got this one for about $15 at Spec's on Holcombe.
Eye: Bright, deep plummy-ruby color.
Nose: Vivacious aromas of spicy cherry, stony minerals, black pepper, and "garrigue" (a smell reminiscent of the hot, dry aromas of herbs growing wild in Provence).Mouth: Broad, soft mouthfeel upon entry, with lots of soft but coarse tannin. Flavors of bitter cherry, pungent minerals, and scorched earth, but with a slight lack of depth in the mid-palate. A distinctive wine that needs stews or pasta with meat sauce to shine.
Cellar or drink? This may soften in a year or so, but the shortcoming with concentration would make anything beyond that risky.
Score: 86.
Price/store: I think I got this one for about $15 at Spec's on Holcombe.
2005 Domaine du Grand Bréviande CHINON (Loire Valley, France)
This was a balanced, elegant-styled red. With just a touch more ripeness, this would have been really good.
Eye: Very dark black ruby.
Nose: Shy, but interesting -- charred meat, black cherry, and minerals.
Mouth: Soft, but concentrated. Nice balance too, featuring cassis and mineral oil flavors, with a slightly bitter undercurrent of brambly twigs.
Cellar or drink? The tight core of fruit and the balance says to me that this wine can age and improve for a few years.
Score: 87.
Price/store: Got this at Central Market for about $16.
Eye: Very dark black ruby.Nose: Shy, but interesting -- charred meat, black cherry, and minerals.
Mouth: Soft, but concentrated. Nice balance too, featuring cassis and mineral oil flavors, with a slightly bitter undercurrent of brambly twigs.
Cellar or drink? The tight core of fruit and the balance says to me that this wine can age and improve for a few years.
Score: 87.
Price/store: Got this at Central Market for about $16.
The Blind Boys of Alabama cover Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground"
Music Video of the Grammy Award winning Blind Boys of Alabama filmed in L.A.
This jamming video features scenes from their appearances at local venues while on location.
I just love these guys and the tune.
This jamming video features scenes from their appearances at local venues while on location.
I just love these guys and the tune.
2004 Verget CHABLIS 1er CRU VAILLONS “Vieilles Vignes de Minots” (Burgundy, France) (unscored notes from memory)
I had this SUPERB Chablis at OLA (the South Beach restaurant discussed below) restaurant.
This seemed to be a very old-school, barrel-fermented style of Chablis, with lots of toasty gun-flint, minerally, and lemony-peach scents on the nose. The flavors were incredibly precise and the mouthfeel light, yet with excellent concentration of lemon-lime and chalky/minerally flavors. (Sorry, picture is for the 2006).
I'm usually only a cautious fan of Verget's white burgundies, as I associate Verget with a style that emphasizes minerally/terroir over fruit, but this was dead-on amazing. I think I wouild have scored this one over 90 if I had been scoring at the time.
This seemed to be a very old-school, barrel-fermented style of Chablis, with lots of toasty gun-flint, minerally, and lemony-peach scents on the nose. The flavors were incredibly precise and the mouthfeel light, yet with excellent concentration of lemon-lime and chalky/minerally flavors. (Sorry, picture is for the 2006).
I'm usually only a cautious fan of Verget's white burgundies, as I associate Verget with a style that emphasizes minerally/terroir over fruit, but this was dead-on amazing. I think I wouild have scored this one over 90 if I had been scoring at the time.
Excellent restaurant in Dallas; very good one in Miami's South Beach
A couple of weeks ago, my family and I were visiting the Dallas/Forth Worth area and were lucky enough to score a late Monday night reservation at a terrific new (but small) Italian restaurant called NONNA. This is definitely in the "Top 5" of Italian restaurants I've eaten at in the US. The freshness and quality of the ingredients was superb, and the cooking was authentic, flavorful, and--best of all--not drowned in cooking fat to stretch the flavors. The pasta dishes and sauces were unique and well-executed, and the wood oven pizzas were true Neapolitan style, light and flavorful. And I could have made a meal of the astoundingly fresh olives brought to the table when we sat down.
Here are my daughter Rebecca's comments:
Nonna is such a fantastic restaurant. The food is outstanding and the service is good. I especially enjoyed the olives and the fried artichokes.
Nonna
4115 Lomo Alto Drive
Dallas
214-521-1800
And two nights ago in South Beach, Miami, I had a terrific Latin American fish meal at OLA. The seafood here is remarkably fresh, and they offer about a dozen different kinds of ceviche!
OLA (at Sanctuary Hotel)
1745 James Ave.
South Beach, Miami, FL
(305) 695-9125
Here are my daughter Rebecca's comments:
Nonna is such a fantastic restaurant. The food is outstanding and the service is good. I especially enjoyed the olives and the fried artichokes.
Nonna
4115 Lomo Alto Drive
Dallas
214-521-1800
And two nights ago in South Beach, Miami, I had a terrific Latin American fish meal at OLA. The seafood here is remarkably fresh, and they offer about a dozen different kinds of ceviche!
OLA (at Sanctuary Hotel)
1745 James Ave.
South Beach, Miami, FL
(305) 695-9125
"Slide Some Oil to Me"
The 1975 Broadway hit, "The Wiz," featured the great song referenced in our title today. That is the topic of our post today - but instead of your humble scribbler, my father - a 30 year career Foreign Service Officer weighs in with this penetrating look into our oil problem. Without further ado, il miglior fabro:
In February the price of oil had settled in at over $100 a barrel. Gasoline and diesel are at all-time highs in America and are reasonably predicted to go higher. As a consequence, the high price of oil is starting to work its way through every sector of the American economy, and the resulting inflation will reduce the buying power of all Americans, especially those who already live on the margin. But much worse-and potentially fatal to America-is our dependence on foreign oil, a very dangerous situation that will only worsen as supplies of petroleum dwindle, production costs rise, and per barrel price increases push oil higher and higher.
It is past time for the American people to understand that a barrel of oil is not a television set, a DVD player, or a pair of running shoes. These latter are consumer goods sold in competitive markets; they are free market products, and I am very much a Free Marketeer. In free markets producers make what eager buyers want to buy. Supply is virtually unlimited and the consumption is determined by price, innovation, technological advances, and fashion. But oil is not a free market product. It is priced by an oligopoly comprising the members of OPEC and serviced by the major oil companies who produce, refine trade, and distribute the products of petroleum, and who benefit from higher oil prices. The oligopoly controls supply to keep prices high, and consumers of petroleum products are completely at their mercy.
In recent years two other factors have entered the supply-demand-price equations for oil: The exploding demand for oil by third world countries, led by China and India, and production shortfalls, either contrived or inevitable.
The elasticity of demand for oil is extremely low precisely because it is essential for transportation and heating. People (and nations) must continue to buy gasoline, diesel, and heating oil regardless of the price, because it is essential to life in the modern world. America needs a lot of oil just to keep the economy going and to provide for the national defense. It is indispensable to national survival. Rising prices and dubious supplies damage every aspect of the American economy, threaten the political stability of the nation, and make us vulnerable to foreign aggressors.
Paul Johnson in is recent book Heroes recounts how he told Margaret Thatcher that governments really need do only three things: Provide for the nation’s protection from external threats, maintain internal order, and assure a sound currency. Without a sufficient supply of oil at a reasonable price, it can do none of these things for very long. Oil for America, therefore, has become in essence a kind of public utility like highways, airports, electricity and natural gas. But since more than half or America’s oil is imported, the price cannot be “regulated” by government the way, say, gas and electricity are, if only because government cannot control the price. Only the foreign producers do that. Oil is essential for our economy, our national defense, and our political stability, and yet it cannot be priced or traded as a “free market” product.
In a recent poll 92% of the respondents said that dependence on imported oil is a serious or very serious problem. On the question of “global warming,” 66% said it was serious or very serious. So the American people (rightly) see oil imports as a more important issue than global warming. Yet politicians of both parties jump on the bogus global warming bandwagon and assiduously turn blind eyes to our liquid fuel crisis which has the potential to threaten America’s very existence as a free country.
And yet this needn’t be. For although America has a limited supply of oil, it has a virtually unlimited supply of coal that can be converted into petroleum equivalents, and in a few years by just tweaking existing technology it has a virtually unlimited supply of oil shale and biomass that can be converted into energy. Today, the only thing lacking in America to do all of these things is a public awareness of the depths of the problem and the very real solutions available domestically, without imports, and the will on the part of our national and state officials to achieve these goals.
Only once in this too-long political season that has dragged on now for over a year has one single politician referred to the obvious fairly short-term solution to America’s disastrous importation of foreign oil, and that was only after he withdrew from the presidential race. Mitt Romney, in his farewell address, mentioned in passing that America could replace oil imports by liquefying part of our abundant reserves of coal. None of the pundits commenting on Romney’s capitulation remarks noted this statement, though, nor was it reported the next day in the press. The very near term reality of coal liquefaction is met by our political and media elites with a thunderous silence.
America right now can convert coal into petroleum equivalents using first the SASOL process to convert coal into gas (“syngas”), and then using the Fischer-Tropsch technology convert the gas into liquid oil. This is not something new, though over the years it has been perfected to produce environmentally sound products at costs way below the present price of oil. Germany used SASOL and Fischer-Tropsch technology during World War II to sustain its military machine. South Africa has used the two processes for years to produce 30% of its liquid energy needs. It is clean and the product is far less expensive than the per barrel cost of oil imported into America today.
On August 28, 2005, the Southern States Energy Board, comprising sixteen states and two territories (the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico) unanimously approved the American Energy Security Study (AES), which was a very detailed and nearly exhaustive examination of the problems of petroleum imports and a detailed proposal for solving them. It is America’s first comprehensive plan to eliminate foreign dependence on foreign oil within twenty years. The AES calls for reducing oil imports each year by using coal, biomass, and oil shale, all plentiful and readily available within our borders. It also calls for greater efficiency in our autos and trucks through technology and especially through an increased use of diesel. The AES states emphatically that this can be done if the national will is strong enough. Unfortunately, it is not, and the political will among our political classes and the media seems to be totally lacking.
Well, not totally. In the U.S. Senate S.3325, the “Coal to Liquid Fuel Promotion Act of 2006” was introduced. In the House of Representatives H.R. 5635, “Investment in American Energy Independence Act of 2006” was likewise introduced. Both died in committee, as have all subsequent efforts to pursue the only real alternative we have to imported oil.
The SAE noted correctly that America faces a liquid transportation crisis. Calling it anything less would be dangerously inaccurate. For our modern state to be totally reliant on the Middle East and Venezuela for its economic life-blood is mortally dangerous to our survival as a free society. Yet America’s opinion and policy makers remain almost criminally silent.
The SAE avers that technologies are available right now to harness coal, biomass, and oil shale. It asserts that the private capital is available “in unprecedented quantities” for good projects to achieve these goals.
Embarking on a “national mission” to achieve energy independence from abroad can create an economic and social renaissance in America. It will reduce our risks of shortfalls in supply; it will lower oil prices and price volatility; it will create an industrial boom in America; it will create millions of new jobs; it will foster new technologies; it will enhance American economic growth; it will gradually eliminate our trade and budget deficits; it will insure strategic fuels for our military; and it will establish a reliable energy base on which to rebuild American industries to be able to meet global competition.
So why are our chattering political elites silent on so important an issue as our slavish dependence on Mid Eastern potentates and Hugo Chavez for our industrial life’s blood?
In 2005 America imported 60% of its oil worth 250 billion. Since then, the price of oil has risen sharply and will almost certainly continue to go up as India, China and others increase their demand for what is becoming an inelastic supply. As the price continues to rise, jobs will be lost in America, investment capital will be drained, and larger defense budgets will be required to “protect” the dubious sources we use for the imports and the supply lines to get there here.
Oil is not an unlimited resource. Bringing in new production gets increasingly costly, assuming that new sources can be found. Some experts believe world oil production will peak in around 2020 as oil prices continue to soar. Then, they will soar even more.
No sane society could deny that alternative liquid transportation fuels must be found. Ethanol can fill only a small part of the shortage, and its increased production is affecting the world in terrible ways our politicians, eco-freaks, and the American farm lobby did not predict. The American military uses 300-400,000 barrels a day for jet fuel and diesel. As starters, we should be converting enough coal into liquid fuel right now to assure that supply for our national survival.
The AES study in 2005 called for eliminating 5% of America’s oil imports each year for twenty years, starting in 2007. Sadly, tht deadline has passed and very little or no progress has been made, with the exception of an ethanol production program more of a sop to Midwestern farmers than a viable solution to our energy problems. It’s like the few miles of fence being built on our borders to halt illegal immigration, no more than a band-aid and a token to try to pacify an angry public.
The AES study notes that America has 500 billion tons of coal, an equivalent of 750,000 billion barrels of oil. It also has one trillion barrels of shale oil in the ground, and the potential to sustain to perpetuity the production of 4.5 million barrels of oil a day by converting 1.3 billion tons of biomass. Moreover, by injecting the Carbon dioxide produced in the SASOL process into America’s conventional reservoirs of oil, it is estimated that more than 80 billion “stranded” barrels of oil can be recovered.
In 2005, when petroleum prices were a fraction of what they are today, the authors of the AES study wrote, “Proven technologies are commercially available today to produce mass quantities of ultra-clean alternative fuels from coal and biomass competitively at a profit in today’s market place. Highly promising oil shale and biomass-to-fuel technologies are rapidly emerging.” That was two and a half years ago, and still the first SASOL plant has yet to be built in America.
It is clear, then, that America’s petroleum “crisis” is a home-grown problem, easily fixed in a fairly short time given the understanding by the American people and the support of policy makers at the national and state levels. James Burnham wrote a book critical of Socialism entitled the Suicide of the West; unless we soon act to remove our dependency on enemies and potential enemies, we will see the Energy Suicide of America.
According to the AES study the “viability threshold” price for Coal-to-liquid (CTL) plants ranges from $36-$55 per crude equivalent barrel of oil depending on plant size, coal rank, and configuration of the plant, or $45.50 - $71.50 per barrel of finished diesel fuel. With petroleum over $100 a barrel, the fuel from coal comes in at 70% cheaper than the imported product. Moreover, as America increases its production of synthetic fuel the world price of oil should stabilize and then begin to fall. Were the price to fall below the production cost of synthetic fuel (Saudi crude costs very little to produce), then the Government could support the domestic price by limiting imports of lower cost crude, or blending the two for a lower price to synfuel producers and consumers alike. In the unlikely event foreign oil fell well below the domestically-produced product, prices of foreign and domestic product could be equalized by taxing the cheap import and using the import duties for American roads and bridges.
But more important than these pricing considerations, as America approaches petroleum self-sufficiency its national security will be critically enhanced.
When so-called “Environmentalists” who balk at any use of coal complain there are several obvious answers: First, existing mining laws and their standards are very tough already. Second, according to the AES study, the processes for converting coal to gas and then to liquid are already proven to be ultra-clean, and the carbon dioxide byproduct can effectively be used to recover huge quantities of oil from otherwise already depleted fields. And third, while the so-called “environmental” concerns may be important to faux- fastidious critics of coal, their criticisms are easily trumped by the national security and the survival imperatives of energy self-sufficiency in America.
The SAE study presents a comprehensive list of requirements America needs to put in place to pursue this vital energy self-sufficiency program. It can be found on the Internet at www.americanenergysecurity.org. Suffice it to note here that they call on the Federal and State governments to develop programs to lower the risk profile of alternative fuel projects. By mitigating the risks, project sponsors with large pools of capital will rush to build alternative fuel plants in all fifty states, the economy around the country will be strengthened, millions of jobs will be created, fuel prices will begin to be stabilized (and, hopefully, then decline), and most important, our dependence on foreign oil will rapidly decline and then disappear all together. Tax and fiscal incentives are also recommended as part of this national energy undertaking.
Given the will, America has the natural resources, the strength and the brains to become liquid fuel self-sufficient. We showed the necessary extraordinary ability to overcome challenges in preparing for and fighting World War II, and again with the Apollo space program. We need the same kinds of motivations now in order to get out from under the yoke of hostile or quasi-hostile oil exporting nations. Yet the silence from our media and our political classes is truly deafening. When will the political classes wake up?
It is past time for the American people to understand that a barrel of oil is not a television set, a DVD player, or a pair of running shoes. These latter are consumer goods sold in competitive markets; they are free market products, and I am very much a Free Marketeer. In free markets producers make what eager buyers want to buy. Supply is virtually unlimited and the consumption is determined by price, innovation, technological advances, and fashion. But oil is not a free market product. It is priced by an oligopoly comprising the members of OPEC and serviced by the major oil companies who produce, refine trade, and distribute the products of petroleum, and who benefit from higher oil prices. The oligopoly controls supply to keep prices high, and consumers of petroleum products are completely at their mercy.
In recent years two other factors have entered the supply-demand-price equations for oil: The exploding demand for oil by third world countries, led by China and India, and production shortfalls, either contrived or inevitable.
The elasticity of demand for oil is extremely low precisely because it is essential for transportation and heating. People (and nations) must continue to buy gasoline, diesel, and heating oil regardless of the price, because it is essential to life in the modern world. America needs a lot of oil just to keep the economy going and to provide for the national defense. It is indispensable to national survival. Rising prices and dubious supplies damage every aspect of the American economy, threaten the political stability of the nation, and make us vulnerable to foreign aggressors.
Paul Johnson in is recent book Heroes recounts how he told Margaret Thatcher that governments really need do only three things: Provide for the nation’s protection from external threats, maintain internal order, and assure a sound currency. Without a sufficient supply of oil at a reasonable price, it can do none of these things for very long. Oil for America, therefore, has become in essence a kind of public utility like highways, airports, electricity and natural gas. But since more than half or America’s oil is imported, the price cannot be “regulated” by government the way, say, gas and electricity are, if only because government cannot control the price. Only the foreign producers do that. Oil is essential for our economy, our national defense, and our political stability, and yet it cannot be priced or traded as a “free market” product.
In a recent poll 92% of the respondents said that dependence on imported oil is a serious or very serious problem. On the question of “global warming,” 66% said it was serious or very serious. So the American people (rightly) see oil imports as a more important issue than global warming. Yet politicians of both parties jump on the bogus global warming bandwagon and assiduously turn blind eyes to our liquid fuel crisis which has the potential to threaten America’s very existence as a free country.
And yet this needn’t be. For although America has a limited supply of oil, it has a virtually unlimited supply of coal that can be converted into petroleum equivalents, and in a few years by just tweaking existing technology it has a virtually unlimited supply of oil shale and biomass that can be converted into energy. Today, the only thing lacking in America to do all of these things is a public awareness of the depths of the problem and the very real solutions available domestically, without imports, and the will on the part of our national and state officials to achieve these goals.
Only once in this too-long political season that has dragged on now for over a year has one single politician referred to the obvious fairly short-term solution to America’s disastrous importation of foreign oil, and that was only after he withdrew from the presidential race. Mitt Romney, in his farewell address, mentioned in passing that America could replace oil imports by liquefying part of our abundant reserves of coal. None of the pundits commenting on Romney’s capitulation remarks noted this statement, though, nor was it reported the next day in the press. The very near term reality of coal liquefaction is met by our political and media elites with a thunderous silence.
America right now can convert coal into petroleum equivalents using first the SASOL process to convert coal into gas (“syngas”), and then using the Fischer-Tropsch technology convert the gas into liquid oil. This is not something new, though over the years it has been perfected to produce environmentally sound products at costs way below the present price of oil. Germany used SASOL and Fischer-Tropsch technology during World War II to sustain its military machine. South Africa has used the two processes for years to produce 30% of its liquid energy needs. It is clean and the product is far less expensive than the per barrel cost of oil imported into America today.
On August 28, 2005, the Southern States Energy Board, comprising sixteen states and two territories (the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico) unanimously approved the American Energy Security Study (AES), which was a very detailed and nearly exhaustive examination of the problems of petroleum imports and a detailed proposal for solving them. It is America’s first comprehensive plan to eliminate foreign dependence on foreign oil within twenty years. The AES calls for reducing oil imports each year by using coal, biomass, and oil shale, all plentiful and readily available within our borders. It also calls for greater efficiency in our autos and trucks through technology and especially through an increased use of diesel. The AES states emphatically that this can be done if the national will is strong enough. Unfortunately, it is not, and the political will among our political classes and the media seems to be totally lacking.
Well, not totally. In the U.S. Senate S.3325, the “Coal to Liquid Fuel Promotion Act of 2006” was introduced. In the House of Representatives H.R. 5635, “Investment in American Energy Independence Act of 2006” was likewise introduced. Both died in committee, as have all subsequent efforts to pursue the only real alternative we have to imported oil.
The SAE noted correctly that America faces a liquid transportation crisis. Calling it anything less would be dangerously inaccurate. For our modern state to be totally reliant on the Middle East and Venezuela for its economic life-blood is mortally dangerous to our survival as a free society. Yet America’s opinion and policy makers remain almost criminally silent.
The SAE avers that technologies are available right now to harness coal, biomass, and oil shale. It asserts that the private capital is available “in unprecedented quantities” for good projects to achieve these goals.
Embarking on a “national mission” to achieve energy independence from abroad can create an economic and social renaissance in America. It will reduce our risks of shortfalls in supply; it will lower oil prices and price volatility; it will create an industrial boom in America; it will create millions of new jobs; it will foster new technologies; it will enhance American economic growth; it will gradually eliminate our trade and budget deficits; it will insure strategic fuels for our military; and it will establish a reliable energy base on which to rebuild American industries to be able to meet global competition.
So why are our chattering political elites silent on so important an issue as our slavish dependence on Mid Eastern potentates and Hugo Chavez for our industrial life’s blood?
In 2005 America imported 60% of its oil worth 250 billion. Since then, the price of oil has risen sharply and will almost certainly continue to go up as India, China and others increase their demand for what is becoming an inelastic supply. As the price continues to rise, jobs will be lost in America, investment capital will be drained, and larger defense budgets will be required to “protect” the dubious sources we use for the imports and the supply lines to get there here.
Oil is not an unlimited resource. Bringing in new production gets increasingly costly, assuming that new sources can be found. Some experts believe world oil production will peak in around 2020 as oil prices continue to soar. Then, they will soar even more.
No sane society could deny that alternative liquid transportation fuels must be found. Ethanol can fill only a small part of the shortage, and its increased production is affecting the world in terrible ways our politicians, eco-freaks, and the American farm lobby did not predict. The American military uses 300-400,000 barrels a day for jet fuel and diesel. As starters, we should be converting enough coal into liquid fuel right now to assure that supply for our national survival.
The AES study in 2005 called for eliminating 5% of America’s oil imports each year for twenty years, starting in 2007. Sadly, tht deadline has passed and very little or no progress has been made, with the exception of an ethanol production program more of a sop to Midwestern farmers than a viable solution to our energy problems. It’s like the few miles of fence being built on our borders to halt illegal immigration, no more than a band-aid and a token to try to pacify an angry public.
The AES study notes that America has 500 billion tons of coal, an equivalent of 750,000 billion barrels of oil. It also has one trillion barrels of shale oil in the ground, and the potential to sustain to perpetuity the production of 4.5 million barrels of oil a day by converting 1.3 billion tons of biomass. Moreover, by injecting the Carbon dioxide produced in the SASOL process into America’s conventional reservoirs of oil, it is estimated that more than 80 billion “stranded” barrels of oil can be recovered.
In 2005, when petroleum prices were a fraction of what they are today, the authors of the AES study wrote, “Proven technologies are commercially available today to produce mass quantities of ultra-clean alternative fuels from coal and biomass competitively at a profit in today’s market place. Highly promising oil shale and biomass-to-fuel technologies are rapidly emerging.” That was two and a half years ago, and still the first SASOL plant has yet to be built in America.
It is clear, then, that America’s petroleum “crisis” is a home-grown problem, easily fixed in a fairly short time given the understanding by the American people and the support of policy makers at the national and state levels. James Burnham wrote a book critical of Socialism entitled the Suicide of the West; unless we soon act to remove our dependency on enemies and potential enemies, we will see the Energy Suicide of America.
According to the AES study the “viability threshold” price for Coal-to-liquid (CTL) plants ranges from $36-$55 per crude equivalent barrel of oil depending on plant size, coal rank, and configuration of the plant, or $45.50 - $71.50 per barrel of finished diesel fuel. With petroleum over $100 a barrel, the fuel from coal comes in at 70% cheaper than the imported product. Moreover, as America increases its production of synthetic fuel the world price of oil should stabilize and then begin to fall. Were the price to fall below the production cost of synthetic fuel (Saudi crude costs very little to produce), then the Government could support the domestic price by limiting imports of lower cost crude, or blending the two for a lower price to synfuel producers and consumers alike. In the unlikely event foreign oil fell well below the domestically-produced product, prices of foreign and domestic product could be equalized by taxing the cheap import and using the import duties for American roads and bridges.
But more important than these pricing considerations, as America approaches petroleum self-sufficiency its national security will be critically enhanced.
When so-called “Environmentalists” who balk at any use of coal complain there are several obvious answers: First, existing mining laws and their standards are very tough already. Second, according to the AES study, the processes for converting coal to gas and then to liquid are already proven to be ultra-clean, and the carbon dioxide byproduct can effectively be used to recover huge quantities of oil from otherwise already depleted fields. And third, while the so-called “environmental” concerns may be important to faux- fastidious critics of coal, their criticisms are easily trumped by the national security and the survival imperatives of energy self-sufficiency in America.
The SAE study presents a comprehensive list of requirements America needs to put in place to pursue this vital energy self-sufficiency program. It can be found on the Internet at www.americanenergysecurity.org. Suffice it to note here that they call on the Federal and State governments to develop programs to lower the risk profile of alternative fuel projects. By mitigating the risks, project sponsors with large pools of capital will rush to build alternative fuel plants in all fifty states, the economy around the country will be strengthened, millions of jobs will be created, fuel prices will begin to be stabilized (and, hopefully, then decline), and most important, our dependence on foreign oil will rapidly decline and then disappear all together. Tax and fiscal incentives are also recommended as part of this national energy undertaking.
Given the will, America has the natural resources, the strength and the brains to become liquid fuel self-sufficient. We showed the necessary extraordinary ability to overcome challenges in preparing for and fighting World War II, and again with the Apollo space program. We need the same kinds of motivations now in order to get out from under the yoke of hostile or quasi-hostile oil exporting nations. Yet the silence from our media and our political classes is truly deafening. When will the political classes wake up?
Jane Fonda: A Vote for Obama
TMZ has a video up of paparazi questioning Jane Fonda as she emerges from a restaurant with friends. You hear one of the cameramen offscreen ask Ms. Fonda which candidate gets her vote in the 2008 presidential election.
Her answer is not too surprising coming from the former outspoken anti-war activist.
Ms. Fonda earned the moniker "Hanoi Jane" for her 1972 trip to Hanoi while the Vietnam War was still raging and Americans were fighting to stop North Vietnamese aggression against South Vietnam. Captured American servicemen like Senator John McCain were being tortured at places like the Hanoi Hilton courtesy of the communist government while Ms. Fonda was being feted by the North Vietnamese. Although she says in retrospect that the trip to Hanoi was a mistake she has never formally apologized for her words and actions during that trip.
Senator McCain recalls with Walter Cronkite those days as a POW in this CBS news segment.
Had George Walker Bush been President of the United States at that time, there would have been regime change in Hanoi.
Blake Hausman brings up the issue of Ms. Fonda's detestible trip to Hanoi during her appearance at Columbia University. Here is her answer.
Her answer is not too surprising coming from the former outspoken anti-war activist.
Ms. Fonda earned the moniker "Hanoi Jane" for her 1972 trip to Hanoi while the Vietnam War was still raging and Americans were fighting to stop North Vietnamese aggression against South Vietnam. Captured American servicemen like Senator John McCain were being tortured at places like the Hanoi Hilton courtesy of the communist government while Ms. Fonda was being feted by the North Vietnamese. Although she says in retrospect that the trip to Hanoi was a mistake she has never formally apologized for her words and actions during that trip.
Senator McCain recalls with Walter Cronkite those days as a POW in this CBS news segment.
Had George Walker Bush been President of the United States at that time, there would have been regime change in Hanoi.
Blake Hausman brings up the issue of Ms. Fonda's detestible trip to Hanoi during her appearance at Columbia University. Here is her answer.
Hugo Chavez with Mouse Ears
Major hat tip to Michelle Malkin for providing a link to a funny photo of Venezuela's wanabe presidente por vida Hugo Chavez gadding about town with a pair of orejas de raton.
The headline for the Noticias24 story behind the photo flap reads; "Chavez fury against Reuters for this photo" The article that appears with the obviously coincidental photo provides some background and the chavista media's huffy reaction (Is that where they get Huffington from? Never mind). It reads, This photograph, taken of Chavez on his recent trip to Brazil, has unleashed chavista fury against Reuters. A statement published today by World Radio said, "Reuters continues with the systematic disrespect for the Presidents of Latin America."
Chavez calls the photo an act of "terrorism".
You gotta' hand it to a guy who really knows how to dude up in a pair of Mouse Ears.
I'd personally give it a serious high-five on the snort-worthy index.
When you click on the link, try not to laugh while you're having your morning cup of Columbian coffee.
The headline for the Noticias24 story behind the photo flap reads; "Chavez fury against Reuters for this photo" The article that appears with the obviously coincidental photo provides some background and the chavista media's huffy reaction (Is that where they get Huffington from? Never mind). It reads, This photograph, taken of Chavez on his recent trip to Brazil, has unleashed chavista fury against Reuters. A statement published today by World Radio said, "Reuters continues with the systematic disrespect for the Presidents of Latin America."
Chavez calls the photo an act of "terrorism".
You gotta' hand it to a guy who really knows how to dude up in a pair of Mouse Ears.
I'd personally give it a serious high-five on the snort-worthy index.
When you click on the link, try not to laugh while you're having your morning cup of Columbian coffee.
Hillary Clinton - Rocky Balboa - And Bowling with Obama
You can't beat the Democrats for sheer entertainment value!
Hillary Clinton compared herself with Rocky Balboa yesterday in comments made during a meeting with the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO. The former first lady remarked, "Let me tell you something, when it comes to finishing a fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up." Continuing her boxing analogy Mrs. Clinton said, "I know what it's like to stumble. I know what it means to get knocked down. But I've never stayed down, and I never will."
The fiesty Junior Senator from New York has never been a shrinking violet when it comes to a good knock-down drag-out fight. She's just getting warmed up. While addressing the crowd Mrs. Clinton recalled the famous scene in the first Rocky movie from 1976 where Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa ascended the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Clinton proposed that quitting the race now would be as though, "Rocky Balboa had gotten halfway up those art museum steps and said, 'Well, I guess that's about far enough."
Think Mrs. Clinton will just melt away just because the prospect of a floor fight at the Democratic convention looms ahead and some namby-pamby super delegates are fretting about a split in the party and urging her to quit?
Fugehtaboudit! The Clinton's haven't had this much fun since they played "Rope-a-Dope" with the Illinois Senator during the South Carolina debates.
While I'm at it, here's an inspirational video montage for the Senator.
The Clintons aren't going to stop campaigning when they see a victory that can be grabbed out of the jaws of defeat. Mrs. Clinton knows that by winning the upcoming Pennsylvania primary by double-digit margins she will take the glow off Obama and slow down what seems like an inevitable victory for the Illinois Senator.
And if Obama's Pennsylvania campaign is anything like his bowling game the Clintons have nothing to worry about. Barack managed to rack up a whopping 37 pins after bowling at Pleasant Valley Lanes in Altoona, Pennsylvania during a recent campaign stop. After playing 7 of 10 frames Obama's score sheet showed 37 as his game total. That's a 3 followed by a 7. --- 37.
I think the Clinton's should challenge Obama to a bowl-off for the primary. If Bill and Hillary had made an appearance at that venue, they'd be running the front desk, ordering your pizza, getting your shirt size, taking deposits and fitting you for a pair of those snazzy shoes to sport about on the lanes while you're perusing the bowling balls and bowl a 300 while your soda's being served!
Here's Senator Obama on the Lanes in Altoona. I don't think he's going to be recruited to play in any Bowling Leagues anytime soon, though he was very good natured about the whole thing.
Hillary Clinton compared herself with Rocky Balboa yesterday in comments made during a meeting with the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO. The former first lady remarked, "Let me tell you something, when it comes to finishing a fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up." Continuing her boxing analogy Mrs. Clinton said, "I know what it's like to stumble. I know what it means to get knocked down. But I've never stayed down, and I never will."
The fiesty Junior Senator from New York has never been a shrinking violet when it comes to a good knock-down drag-out fight. She's just getting warmed up. While addressing the crowd Mrs. Clinton recalled the famous scene in the first Rocky movie from 1976 where Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa ascended the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Clinton proposed that quitting the race now would be as though, "Rocky Balboa had gotten halfway up those art museum steps and said, 'Well, I guess that's about far enough."
Think Mrs. Clinton will just melt away just because the prospect of a floor fight at the Democratic convention looms ahead and some namby-pamby super delegates are fretting about a split in the party and urging her to quit?
Fugehtaboudit! The Clinton's haven't had this much fun since they played "Rope-a-Dope" with the Illinois Senator during the South Carolina debates.
While I'm at it, here's an inspirational video montage for the Senator.
The Clintons aren't going to stop campaigning when they see a victory that can be grabbed out of the jaws of defeat. Mrs. Clinton knows that by winning the upcoming Pennsylvania primary by double-digit margins she will take the glow off Obama and slow down what seems like an inevitable victory for the Illinois Senator.
And if Obama's Pennsylvania campaign is anything like his bowling game the Clintons have nothing to worry about. Barack managed to rack up a whopping 37 pins after bowling at Pleasant Valley Lanes in Altoona, Pennsylvania during a recent campaign stop. After playing 7 of 10 frames Obama's score sheet showed 37 as his game total. That's a 3 followed by a 7. --- 37.
I think the Clinton's should challenge Obama to a bowl-off for the primary. If Bill and Hillary had made an appearance at that venue, they'd be running the front desk, ordering your pizza, getting your shirt size, taking deposits and fitting you for a pair of those snazzy shoes to sport about on the lanes while you're perusing the bowling balls and bowl a 300 while your soda's being served!
Here's Senator Obama on the Lanes in Altoona. I don't think he's going to be recruited to play in any Bowling Leagues anytime soon, though he was very good natured about the whole thing.
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